In the 1840s Mary met the Irish comedic writer
Charles Lever while in Florence. He took credit for training her to act in a letter where he referred to her later association with Charles Dickens:"Mary Boyle—that was Dickens’s prima donna—was of my training; her infant steps (she was five-and-thirty at the time) were first led by me; and I remember holding a ladder for her while she sang a love-song out of a window, and (trying to study my own part at the same time) I set fire to her petticoats!"In 1849, she met Charles Dickens at
Rockingham Castle. In 1851, Dickens heavily edited and published her story, "My Mahogany Friend" (a title of his own suggestion) in his magazine
Household Words. He wrote to her about the "thorny track" of professional writing, which has been interpreted as delicately worded advice not to pursue a career as a novelist. Her next work came in 1865,
Tangled Weft: Two Stories. Dickens’ letters to her record several of her gifts to him and call her "among the few whom I most care for and best love." He encouraged her to read
Great Expectations in its year of release, writing of its popular appeal. She customarily sent him a flower for his button-hole for his public readings, which she accomplished even when he was in Boston. She was present at Gad's Hill on the day of his death in 1870. == Friendship with Tennyson and later life ==