Mary Gladys Webb was an English romance novelist and poet of the early 20th century. Her work is set chiefly in the Shropshire countryside and among Shropshire characters and people whom she knew well. Her novels have been successfully dramatized, most notably the film Gone to Earth in 1950 by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, based on the novel of the same title. The novels are thought to have inspired the famous parody Cold Comfort Farm (1932) by Stella Gibbons.

Although she was acclaimed by John Buchan and Rebecca West, who hailed her as a genius, she won little respect from the general public during her lifetime. It was only after her death that the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, earned her posthumous success through his approbation, referring to her as a neglected genius at a Literary Fund dinner in 1928. Her writing is notable for its descriptions of nature and the human heart. She had a deep sympathy for all her characters.