When Marion and Terry WHYBROW first came to Cornwall in 1980 and settled in St Ives, Marion was a primary school teacher, with a degree in 19th century literature and its legacy, and a teaching certificate from the London Institute of Education. She had been teaching full time, producing the school magazine, and taking the extra responsibility of encouraging children to be creative writers. In Cornwall this translated into part-time and supply teaching, and undertaking articles for the St Ives Times & Echo on art exhibitions and various other (usually art related) events.  Her husband Terry was and remains a full-time artist.

Marion was the organiser of 'Inspire' promoting exhibitions for painters, potters and sculptors, selecting artists, writing catalogues and arranging venues.  Co-director with publisher Toni Carver (St Ives Times) and together with Colin ORCHARD, designer, she also organised several book fairs, writers' days, Open Studio events and arts-related Town Trails for St Ives. In 1990 she organised the Arts & Crafts Exhibition for six schools in St Ives to celebrate the centenary year of the St Ives Arts Club (STIAC).

As such a town 'servant' one could describe her as the original back-room girl for the artists, and out of these activities she took on the pioneering role of contemporary historian and documenter of the artists' colony of St Ives, a path which several others have followed up with in-depth studies of individual artists and major surveys of particular aspects of the creative colonies (such as marine painting, landscape painters, and defined periods).

Marion made her own contribution to the contemporary artists of West Cornwall, by publishing a series of small books about painters, potters and sculptors around her from 1984-1996 (listed below) which still stand as a useful record about artists, most of whom are still alive today, but about whom little personal information may be available, due to lack of literature such as biographies or critical reviews. These little books offered a portrait of the artist-craftsman at an earlier time in their career, usually in their private studio, with a personal statement.

But meantime, with a research grant from the University of Exeter, Marion produced her first major book 1883-1993 Portrait of an Art Colony, to coincide with the opening of the Tate Gallery, St Ives (1993), published by the Antique Collectors Club, Woodbridge, Suffolk.  The book was launched at the Tate St Ives, and remains a treasured archive of detail about art and artists in St Ives, and West Cornwall. From this pioneering work, much else has been forthcoming from other researchers and historians.

Marion's contribution to the history of art and artists in Cornwall is immense, as will be seen from her bibliography. Her social contributions to the organisations that back up and support 'the creative industries' as arts and crafts seem to be called today, are equally great, i.e. STIAC, Tate Gallery St Ives, Leach Pottery, and archives such as the St Ives Archive Trust and the West Cornwall Art Archive. She was an active member of the Hypatia Trust, and contributed a large number of photographs and mementos to the West Cornwall Art Archive project of the Trust.
She died on 19 July, 2015, aged 83, leaving her artist husband Terry, two daughters, and four grandchildren and many friends in the literary and visual arts worldwide.