British & Irish Women Writers of Fiction 1910-1960 (Hoo - I)

For more information about this list, please see the introduction, linked below. 

INTRODUCTION
A	BA–BH	BI-BO	BR-BY	CA-CLA
CLE-CU	D	E-FI	FL-GI	GL-HAR
HAS-HOL	HOO-I	J-K	L	MA
MC-MY	N-O	P-Q	R	SA-SM
SN-SY	T	U-WE	WH-Z
KEY & CITATIONS

You can download the entire list in a single PDF. Clicking on the link below will open a Google Docs page displaying the entire list in PDF. To save a copy of the PDF, just click on the little down arrow in the upper left. You can also print the list from the Google Docs page, but be warned that it now weighs in at 544 pages! 

BRITISH & IRISH WOMEN WRITERS OF FICTION 1910-1960 (PDF) 

[Current total: 2,391 writers] 

UPDATED 2/29/2024

 

HOOD, ARTHUR (1863 - 10 Nov 1938) (pseudonym of Amy Constance Woodhouse, married names Hood and Mends-Gibson) 1900s, 1920s – 1930s Playwright and author of at least three novels—The Mind of the Duchess (1908), Dragon's Teeth (1925), and Jacob (1932). The second of these is set during the French Revolution. Woodhouse also wrote (and at least occasionally appeared in) plays and was involved with the Bankside Theatre in Middlesex.

HOOKE, NINA WARNER (14 Aug 1907 – 14 Dec 1994) (née Malagoni, adopted stepfather's name Hooke, married name Thomas) 1930s, 1950s – 1980s Playwright, biographer, children's writer, and author of six novels. Her trilogy of humorous novels about young people in the 1930s—Striplings (1933), Close of Play (1936), and Own Wilderness (1938)—garnered comparisons to Wodehouse and was later turned into a successful play. Home Is Where You Make It (1952) is a memoir about two Londoners creating the home of their dreams from a row of derelict hovels, while Darkness I Leave You (1956) was described as "a rip-roaring melodrama set appropriately in Victorian England", and Deadly Record (1958) is a crime novel and was also adapted for the stage. In later years, she published several children's books—The Starveling (1958, aka White Christmas and The Snow Kitten), about "how a homeless kitten melts the sad cold heart of a spinster", Pepito (1978, aka Little Dog Lost), A Donkey Called Paloma (1981), and The Moon on the Water (1982). The Seal Summer (1964) appears to be a memoir about her interactions with a friendly wild seal during one summer holiday.

Hooke, Sylvia Denys           see MALLESON, LUCY BEATRICE

HOOPER, JUNE (dates unknown) 1950s Unidentified author of a single novel, The Apprentices (1956), set among a group of young people in Cambridge, which received considerably acclaim along with some critiques for being too influenced by Henry James.

HOOTON, E[LSIE]. MAY (?1907 - ?1997) (uncertain but probable identification) 1950s – 1960s Author of eight children's titles, including one school story, The Harbord Prize (1955). Others are Anne's Call (1951), Cherry's Corner (1953), The Winning Side (1954), Those Terrible Tindalls (1956), Julie's Bicycle (1959), Sally's Summer Adventures (1960), and Wendy (1964).

Hope, Amanda           see BERRISFORD, JUDITH MARY

HOPE, CAMILLA (18 Jan 1889 – 14 Jan 1975) (pseudonym of Grace Elsie Thompson) 1920s Journalist, biographer and author of three novels. A blurb for the second, Long Shadows (1928), reads, "Seeking the motive for the crime leads into the dark labyrinth of an African city and a mysterious legionnaire." Moon of Joy (1927) is a romance about a “golden-haired girl who falls in love with a Moorish Prince,” Curiously Planned (1928) is an adventure featuring Lady Gwen Hardwyn, who has taken to gun-running in the Sahara. Hope later wrote biographies of George IV and William IV, as well as courtesan and Casanova lover Marianna de Charpillon.

HOPE, CORAL (dates unknown) 1940s – 1950s Untraced author of three novels. A blurb for Listening Hands (1944) describes it as the "[s]tory of a concert pianist who encounters a wraith from the past." The others are The Play of a Lifetime (1946) and The Shadowed Hour (1951). She also published one children's book, The Flapdoodle Who Always Knew Best (1945).

HOPE, [FRANCES] ESSEX [THEODORA] (3 Apr 1880 – 17 Sept 1964) (née Smith) 1930s – 1940s, 1960s Author of three children's titles—Pen Goes North (1949) set partly in a school, Turned Adrift: The Story of a Dog (1937), and A Dog for Richard (1966)—and what may be an adult novel, I Have Come Home (1940). SEE ESSEX SMITH

HOPE, GERTRUDE (dates unknown) 1920s Untraced author of a single short romance, A Fair Weather Lover (1929).

HOPE, JANE (dates unknown) 1940s – 1960s Untraced author and illustrator of nearly a dozen humorous works, most concerned with schools or child-rearing. Though purportedly non-fiction, one assumes that some of her accounts are at least lightly fictionalized. Titles include Don't Do It: A Complete Guide to Teaching (1949), One Term at Utopia: Pages from the Diary of Jane Hope (1950), The Inspector Suggests, or, How Not to Inhibit a Child (1951), The Scholarship Stakes (1955), Happy Event: A Humorous Account of a Child's First Year of Life (1957), and The Thin Chalk Line (1962). In a bio from the Penguin edition of one of her books, Hope says she "was born into a Lancashire family of engineers and schoolteachers, and married into a Lancashire family of engineers and schoolteachers." She progressed to teaching and writing, and at the time (mid-1950s) was living in Newcastle-upon-Tyne with her husband and two sons. Despite these details, there are too many possibilities in public records to narrow down. Thank you to David Redd for sharing information and his copy of one of the books.

HOPE, NOEL (9 Jan 1867 - 1950) (pseudonym of Sarah Louisa Morewood) 1890s – 1930s Author of numerous children's titles, most with religious or inspirational themes, including Where Moses Went to School (1909), Jolly the Joker: A Life-Saving Scout Story (1921), Fenella's Fetters, or, Unseen Chains (1921), Face It Out, or, Straight Roads Are the Shortest (1928), and Ruth the Home Maker (1934).

HOPE-SIMPSON, JACYNTH (10 Nov 1930 – 3 Jul 2008) (née Cureton, aka Helen Dudley) 1960s – 1980s Author of nearly 30 volumes of fiction for adults and children, as well as several non-fiction works for children. Children's fiction includes the sports-oriented school stories Anne, Young Swimmer (1960) and Young Netball Player (1961), as well as The Great Fire (1961), Danger on the Line (1962), The Ice Fair (1963), and The Witch's Cave (1964). Her novels for adults are The Bishop of Kenelminster (1961), The Bishop's Picture (1962), The Unravished Bride (1963), The Hooded Falcon (1979, as Helen Dudley), Cottage Dreams (1985), and Island of Perfumes (1985).

HORLEY, [BEATRICE] GEORGINA (24 Sept 1918 – 17 Aug 2006) (née Essex, married name Smith) 1950s Journalist and author of a single humorous novel, Bus Stop (1955), about a London civil servant who, fed up with poor bus service, leads a protest in the form of everyone walking to work. She later published a cookbook, Good Food on a Budget (1969), published by Penguin. A 1955 article says that she was living in Worthing and married to Eric Earnshaw Smith, a retired Civil Servant. Their 1947 marriage record shows her as "Georgina Horley or Essex", indicating either a previous marriage or that Horley was a pseudonym.

HORN, KATE (27 Aug 1866 – 22 Jan 1951) (pseudonym of Constance Emma Cromwell Weigall, née Warner, aka C.E.C. Weigall) 1890s – 1920s Author of more than 30 novels, mostly lightly humorous romantic tales. I reviewed Edward and I and Mrs Honeybun (1910), about an impoverished aristocratic couple and an eccentric charwoman, here. Other titles include The Temptation of Dulce Carruthers (1893), An Angel Unawares: A Lincolnshire Story (1899), A Wife Worth Winning (1907), The Mulberries of Daphne (1910), Susan and the Duke: A Mere Love Story (1912), The Flute of Arcady (1914), Handley's Corner (1919), Three Blind Mice (1923), Beauty and the Pig (1925), Lavinia of Whiteways (1925), and The Verger (1927).

HORNER, JOYCE [MARY] (13 Jul 1903 – 24 Mar 1980) 1940s Novelist, pioneering scholar, and professor at Mount Holyoke College for a quarter of a century. Her first novel, The Wind and the Rain (1943), deals with the childhood and young womanhood of Marian Townsend, hopelessly in love with a school friend who turns into a successful actor. The Greyhound in the Leash (1949) flirts with fantasy in telling of a woman who lives her life four times, making varied decisions each time. Prior to her fiction, Horner had published The English Women Novelists and Their Connection with the Feminist Movement (1688-1797) (1930), a pioneering work of feminist criticism before such a thing really existed. In later years, she suffered from debilitating arthritic, keeping a diary of her experiences in a nursing home, published posthumously as That Time of Year (1982).

HORNSBY, THORA E. (1929 - ????) (married names Neal and Clack) 1940s A precocious literary prodigy, Hornsby published the first of her three school stories when she was only 13. Her works, characterized by lots of not entirely believable action (according to Sims & Clare), are Diana at School (1944), Three Thrilling Terms (1946), and The Feud (1948). She may have relocated to South Africa after her second marriage in 1976.

HORT, GERTRUDE [MARIE] (21 Sept 1873 – 17 Dec 1953) 1920s, 1940s Poet, biographer, and author of two novels—The Peace-Fire: A Story of Somerset (1929) and Goodman's Ground: A Romance of the West Country (1946). Information is sparse, but the former at least may have supernatural themes. She published one biography, Dr. John Dee: Elizabethan Mystic and Astrologer (1939).

HOSIE, DOROTHEA (1885 – 15 Feb 1959) (née Soothill) 1940s Wife of diplomat Sir Alexander Hosie. After his death she published several works of biography and nonfiction about China. She made at least one foray into fiction, with The Pool of Ch'ien Lung: A Tale of Modern Peking (1944).

HOUGH, [HELEN] CHARLOTTE (24 May 1924 – 31 Dec 2008) (née Woodyadd, later married name Ackroyd) 1950s – 1970s Mother of novelist Deborah Moggach and author of more than 20 children's books, including The Home-Makers (1957), Morton's Pony (1957), The Trackers (1960), Educating Flora and Other Stories (1968), Queer Customer (1972), and The Mixture as Before (1978). She also published a single adult novel, The Bassington Murder (1980), featuring an amateur sleuth in a small English village. She began work on a second mystery, but in the 1980s she went to prison for assisting an elderly friend in committing suicide, and the experience was so traumatic that she was unable to return to writing. There’s an article discussing the events here.

HOULT, NORAH (ELEANOR) (20 Sept 1898 – 1 Apr 1984) (married name Stonor) 1920s – 1970s Irish author of nearly 30 volumes of fiction, including three story collections. Her most famous work today is There Were No Windows (1944), thanks to its Persephone reprint, a harrowing but fascinating tale about an elderly woman in London experiencing dementia in the worst days of the Blitz, accompanied only by surly caregivers and indifferent others, all women. The novel is reportedly based on the sad final days of novelist Violet HUNT, who was Hoult's neighbor for a time. House Under Mars (1946) also focuses primarily on women, set in a boarding house in the late years of the war. Hoult seems to have had a particular interest in boarding-houses and apartment buildings, a setting also used in Apartments to Let (1931) and A Death Occurred (1954), the latter about apartment dwellers coming to terms with the death of a neighbor none of them liked. Among her other work, Smilin' on the Vine (1939) and its sequel Augusta Steps Out (1942) feature a young black woman as their protagonist, and Scene for Death (1943) is a philosophical murder mystery set in a small village during wartime. Hoult had enough success early in her career to warrant a Selected Stories in 1946. In recent years, two more of her works, Farewell Happy Fields (1948) and Cocktail Bar (1950), have been reprinted by New Island Books in Dublin. Other novels include Closing Hour (1930), Holy Ireland (1935), Four Women Grow Up (1940), Sister Mavis (1953), Husband and Wife (1959), Only Fools and Horses Work (1969), and Two Girls in the Big Smoke (1977).

HOUSELANDER, [FRANCES] CARYLL (29 Sept 1901 – 12 Oct 1954) 1940s Primarily the author of Catholic inspirational works, many of which remain in print, including This War Is the Passion (1941), which deals with the Blitz, Houselander also wrote short fiction and a single novel, The Dry Wood (1947).

HOUSTON, BILLIE (15 Oct 1906 – 30 Sept 1972) (pseudonym of Sarah McMahon Gribbin, married names Wilton, Cowper, and Wills-Eve) 1930s Actress and dancer with her sister Reneé, as the Houston Sisters, and author of a single mystery, Twice Round the Clock (1935), a country house mystery which has now been reprinted by British Library Crime Classics.

HOWARD, ELIZABETH JANE (26 Mar 1923 – 2 Jan 2014) (married names Scott, Douglas-Henry, and Amis) 1950s – 2010s Screenwriter and novelist best known for her five volume saga The Cazalets, comprised of The Light Years (1990), Marking Time (1991), Confusion (1993), Casting Off (1995), and All Change (2013), which traces one family's experiences during World War II. Howard's first novel, The Beautiful Visit (1950), won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. Others include The Sea Change (1959), After Julius (1965), Odd Girl Out (1972), Getting It Right (1982), and Slipstream (2002). Her third marriage was to novelist Kingsley Amis, which made her for a number of years stepmother to novelist Martin Amis.

Howard, Jean           see MACGIBBON, JEAN

HOWARD, JOYCE [BEAUMONT] (28 Feb 1922 – 23 Nov 2010) 1960s, 2000s Stage and film actress and author of three novels. Two Persons Singular (1960) is a love story set in a low-rent boarding house in East London, and A Private View (1961) is about a man reflecting on his life from a state-run home for the elderly. Four decades later, Howard appears to have self-published a final novel, Going On (2000), about an alcoholic in Los Angeles. Howard's film roles included The Night Has Eyes and Miss Fitzherbert. She retired from acting in 1950 to care for her three children.

Howard, Linden           see MANLEY-TUCKER, AUDRIE

Howard, Mary           see EDGAR, MARY

HOWARTH, SHEILA (29 May 1921 – 23 Nov 1982) (married name Majdalany) 1960s Author of two works of fiction—With My Body (1960), comprised of a short story and a novella, and Bogeyman's Plaything (1962). She is presumably the same author who wrote gardening and cooking books in the 1970s. Her first book is partly set in Hollywood, which may mean she's the Sheila Howorth, from Leeds, born c1921, who got publicity for being attacked by a taxi driver in Los Angeles in 1947.

HOWAT, ETHEL (dates unknown) 1930s Untraced author of a single short romance, Snake in the Grass (1934).

HOWE, BEA (BEATRICE) [ISABEL] (21 Dec 1898 – 6 Jun 1992) (married name Lubbock) 1920s A fringe member of the Bloomsbury Group, Howe published one short novel, A Fairy Leapt Upon My Knee (1927), as well as biographies of Jane Loudon and Mary Eliza Hawels, and a memoir, A Child in Chile (1957). The Spectator described Fairy as "a tale of two shy and delicate lovers and a very odd fairy" and summed it up as "charmed and wistful, like the tears in the cup of the crown-imperial, or the opening of evening primroses." Simon at Stuck in a Book reviewed it here.

HOWE, DORIS [KATHLEEN] (23 Sept 1904 – 10 Jul 1994) (aka Newlyn Nash [with Muriel Howe], aka Kaye Stewart, aka Mary Munro) 1940s – 1970s Sister of Muriel HOWE. Author of more than 40 novels, mostly romances, though Wild Garlic (1962) and The Affair at Claife Manor (1963), written with her sister, seem to be romantic suspense. Other titles include The Touchstone (1945), All Vigil Ended (1947), The Happy Pilgrim (1953), Winter Jasmine (1956), Island Destiny (1958), A Red Rose (1960), The Honey Pot (1962), and The Hotel by the Loch (1977).

Howe, Ethel           see LEWIS, ETHELREDA

HOWE, MURIEL (9 Jul 1898 – 4 Dec 1987) (married name Smithies, aka Newlyn Nash [with sister Doris Howe]) 1940s – 1960s Sister of Doris HOWE. Author of more than 20 novels, including at least two collaborations with her sister that appear to have been romantic suspense. Two of her own titles, The Affair at Falconers (1957) and Pendragon (1958) were more straightforward mysteries. Others are If There Be One (1944), Master of Skelgale (1946), Heatherling (1950), and Beach of Dreams (1961).

HOWIS, ELAINE [VERA] (13 Aug 1900 - 2001) (née Vivian) 1950s Author of four novels—All I Want (1956), The Lily Pond (1957), Almost an Island (1958), and Demand Me Nothing (1960)—and a story collection, Dazzle the Native (1956), which seem to have been influenced by Virginia WOOLF. A copy of The Lily Pond was in Barbara PYM's personal library. I wrote about several of her books here.

HOY, ELIZABETH (2 Feb 1898 – 7 Nov 1982) (pseudonym of Alice Nina Conarain) 1930s - 1980 Author of more than 60 Mills & Boon romances. Her many titles include Love in Apron Strings (1933), Sally in the Sunshine (1937), Enchanted Wilderness (1940), The Dark Loch (1948), Fanfare for Lovers (1953), City of Dreams (1959), and The Blue Jacaranda (1975).

HUDDART, GLADYS M[AUDE]. (dates unknown) 1920s? Daughter of Beatrice HERON-MAXWELL. According to OCEF she published fiction in the 1920s, but I can find no reference to her in the British Library catalogue or on Google Books. Perhaps her fiction appeared only in periodicals.

HUGHES, MOLLY (MARY) [VIVIAN] (2 Oct 1866 – 29 May 1956) (née Thomas) 1930s Author of non-fiction and memoir, as well as one historical and semi-autobiographical novel, Vivians (1935). She remains best known, however, for her four memoirs—A London Child of the 1870s (1934, reprinted by Persephone), A London Girl of the Eighties (1936), A London Home of the Nineties (1937), and A London Family Between the Wars (1940).

HUGHES-GIBB, ELEANOR [MARY] (26 May 1858 – 30 Oct 1947) (née Wigram) 1900s – 1910s Author of several books about botany as well as four novels—The Soul of a Villain (1905), Through the Rain (1906), His Sister (1908), and Gilbert Ray (1914). The last is about labour disputes among iron-workers in northern England.

HUGHES-STANTON, BARBARA [LOIS] (17 May 1905 – 18 Jun 1975) (married name Brookes) 1930s Author of three novels, including Nurse (1933), about "a traditionally wise and kindly nurse," Family Affairs (1934), and Never-Ending (1934).

HUISH, FRANCES [KATHERINE MARY] (18 Sept 1904 – 21 Nov 1974) 1940s Author of a single novel, Selina Triumphant (1940). A blurb from the Times, quoted in a publisher's ad, said, "There is plenty of entertainment and fun in this story of Oxford and life in a girls' school."

HUKK, JANE [HEPBURN] (1886 – 11 Aug 1957) (née Batty) 1920s - 1930s Author of three novels, all concerned to some extent with India, where she lived for more than a decade with her husband. Abdullah and His Two Strings (1926) is about an Indian student at Edinburgh University who, though already married at home, falls in love with his landlady’s daughter. In The Bridal Creeper (1928), “a young man marries out of his class, and repents in India, where he and his wife each seek suitable consolation.” And End of a Marriage (1935) deals with the World War I marriage between an Indian man and a Scottish woman, who vow never to meet again, but do, unexpectably, under very different circumstances. Following her return from India, Hukk lived in Berwick. She was a stepsister to Anne HEPPLE, and in a 1929 interview Hepple said she was inspired to try her hand at writing because Hukk had been successful at it.

HULL, E[DITH]. M[AUDE]. (16 Aug 1880 – 11 Feb 1947) (née Henderson, aka Edith Maud Winstanley) 1910s – 1930s Author of seven novels, none so famous as her enormously successful debut, The Sheik (1919), which became a film starring Rudolph Valentino. The Literary Review called the book "[p]oisonously salacious in conception," but that didn't stop the British edition from going through 108 impressions in the four years after publication. Hull's subsequent novels, including a sequel, were less successful. Titles are The Shadow of the East (1921), The Desert Healer (1923), Sons of the Sheik (1925), The Lion-Tamer (1928), The Captive of Sahara (1931), and The Forest of Terrible Things (1939, aka Jungle Captive).

HULL, KATHARINE (18 Jul 1921 – 13 Nov 1977) (married name Buxton) 1930s – 1940s Author of four popular children's books with Pamela WHITLOCK, most famously The Far-Distant Oxus (1937), written when the pair were still teenagers, about six children on their own in Exmoor. The others are Escape to Persia (1938), Oxus in Summer (1939), and Crowns (1947).

HULL, VERONICA (dates unknown) 1950s Author of a single novel, The Monkey Puzzle (1958), tracing the difficulties of an unhappy young woman in bohemian London. According to an interview with thriller writer Robin Cook, who apparently dated Hull for a time, the novel was a roman à clef about philosopher A. J. Ayer's scandalous behavior with female students. Hull was also a translator of works from French to English.

HULME, AUDREY (dates unknown) 1950s Untraced author of a single novel, Lawyer's Folly (1959), about the effects of a solicitor's misconduct on six characters.

HUMBLE-SMITH, MYLDREDE (26 Jan 1885 - 1978) 1920s Author of a single girls' school novel, The Girls of Chiltern Towers (1929).

HUMPHRIES, HELEN S[PEIRS]. (27 May 1915 - 2014) (née Dickie, middle name has sometimes been spelled as Spiers, but her birth record has Speirs) 1950s – 1970s Author of ten Christian-themed girls' stories, including a series of six set at St. Margaret's school—Margaret the Rebel (1957), Margaret of St. Margaret's (1959), Changes for St. Margaret's (1960), St. Margaret's Girls Branch Out (1961), Return to St. Margaret's (1962), and St. Margaret's Trials and Triumphs (1964). Her other, standalone stories are The Strange New Girl (1964), Prudence Goes Too Far (1966), The Secrets of the Castle (1967), and The Twins Who Weren't (1972).

HUNT, DOROTHY A[LICE]. (26 Feb 1896 – 17 Apr 1982) (married name Fellows, aka Doric Collyer) 1920s – 1950s Author whose books have sometimes been misattributed to Dorothy Alice BONAVIA-HUNT (see my post about working through the confusion here). This Hunt wrote eight novels, including the pseudonymous Ann of the House of Barlow (1926)—the Collyer from her pseudonym was her mother's maiden name—and, under her own name, Unfettered (1937), Reflection (1937), Vagabonds All (1938), Watching Eyes (1940), Meet Madame Mazova (1942), The Amazing Paradox (1948), and Ashes of Achievement (1959). According to her grandnephew, she had been an active suffragette and also gave one or more recitals at London's Wigmore Hall.

HUNT, ELIZABETH M. (22 Jan 1917 – 20 Dec 2000) (real name Elizabeth Joyce Hunt, married name Green) 1940s Actress, screenwriter, and author of a single novel, The Eagle Lies Bleeding (1947), tracing a family’s experiences in Poland from 1919 to the novel’s present. It’s unclear where the initial “M” she used for the book came from, as her middle name is clearly Joyce on all her records.

HUNT, [ISABEL] VIOLET (28 Sept 1862 – 16 Jan 1942) 1890s – 1920s Novelist and memoirist known for her early "new woman" novels, her Kensington literary salons, and her affairs with the likes of W. Somerset Maugham, H. G. Wells, and Ford Madox Ford. The Workaday Woman (1906) flirts with themes of working women, while White Rose of Weary Leaf (1908), often considered her best work, was risqué for its day. Zeppelin Nights (1917), written with Ford, is a sort of Canterbury Tales for World War I, though the content is primarily historical and not war-related. The Last Ditch (1918), however, is described as an epistolary novel about a mother and two daughters and their experiences during the war. She also earned acclaim for her biography, The Wife of Rossetti: Her Life and Death (1932). Other fiction includes The Maiden's Progress (1894), Sooner or Later (1904), The House of Many Mirrors (1915), Their Lives (1916), and Their Hearts (1921), as well as a two volumes of ghost stories, Tales of the Uneasy (1911) and More Tales of the Uneasy (1925). Hunt published a memoir, The Flurried Years (1926), and reportedly inspired two of Ford Madox Ford's characters—Florence in The Good Soldier and Sylvia in Parade's End—as well as Rose in Somerset Maugham's The Moon and Sixpence. She also modelled for paintings by Edward Burne-Jones and Walter Sickert. Hunt's final book appeared in 1932, but her tragic final illness in London during the Blitz reportedly inspired the main character in Norah HOULT's powerful novel There Were No Windows (1944).

Hunter, Clementine           see KEYNES, HELEN MARY

HUNTER, ELIZABETH [MARY TERESA] (24 Oct 1934 – 1 May 2005) (aka Isobel Chace, aka Elizabeth de Guise) 1960s – 1990s Author of nearly 50 romances, most for Mills & Boon and under her Chace pseudonym. Titles include The Japanese Lantern (1960), Cherry-Blossom Clinic (1961), Spiced with Cloves (1963), The Rhythm of Flamenco (1966), A Garland of Marigolds (1967), The Beads of Nemesis (1974), A Time to Wed (1984), and Bridge of Sighs (1992).

HUNTSMAN, HILDEGARDE [RUTH] (14 Sept 1904 – 11 Apr 1999) (née Jones) 1920s – 1930s Author of three novels, the first of which, The Laughing String (1929, published in the U.S. as Mad Fingers), may owe something to The Constant Nymph: "A well-written English story of an irresponsible artist's family, more particularly of Anna, practical and level-headed, a balance wheel in confusion." Butterflies Have Wings (1931) is about the frustrations of a young girl whose parents don't realize she's growing up. I could find no details her final novel, Martha and Mary (1935). In the 1950s, Huntsman published two one-act plays for all-women casts. According to an Ancestry family tree, she may have gone by the nickname "Garda".

Hurnscot, Loran           see TAYLOR, GAY

Hurst, Anna           see TRUSCOTT, L. PARRY

HURST, IDA (dates unknown) 1940s Best known for adventurous travel books as the "vagabond typist," beginning with Wander-Thirst (1936), but also credited with two novels, African Heart-Beat (1947) and I'll Walk Beside You (1949), Hurst's identity is a bit of a mystery. Contemporary reviews tell varying stories of her origins and her decision to up sticks from her typist job to travel the world, but John Herrington has been unable to trace her in public records. According to the archive of her publisher, Hutchinson, a contract for one of the novels was indeed signed by an Ida Hurst, but the surviving contracts for her travel books were all signed by one Robert Goodwin Smith (1907-1996). Was Smith in fact the author all along, or is there another explanation? For now, it remains a mystery.

HURST, SYBIL (dates unknown) 1920s – 1930s Untraced author of seven romances, including She Wanted to Shine (1927), A Sorry Start (1928), The Pretender (1928), The Daughter-in-Law (1928), Her Enemy (1930), A Girl of Grit (1934), and Out for Luxury (1935).

HURT, FREDA M[ARY ELIZABETH]. (14 Jun 1911 – 1 Jan 1999) 1950s – 1970s Author of more than 30 volumes of children's fiction and 16 mysteries. Her children's books include two school stories, The Wonderful Birthday (1953) and Fun Next Door (1954). Others include her Mr. Twink series (1953-1962), her Andy series (1953-1965), and standalone titles like The Exciting Summer (1956), Intruders at Pinetops (1958), The Caravan Cat (1963), and Benny and the Dolphin (1968). Her mysteries, most or all of which feature series character Inspector Herbert Broom, are The Body at Busman's Hollow (1959), Death by Bequest (1960), Sweet Death (1961), Acquainted with Murder (1962), Death and the Bridegroom (1963), Cold and Unhonoured (1964), A Cause for Malice (1966), Death and the Dark Daughter (1966), So Dark a Shadow (1967), Seven Year Secret (1968), Death in the Mist (1969), Dangerous Visit (1971), Dark Design (1972), Return to Terror (1974), and Fatal Fortune (1975).

HUTCHINSON, VERE [STUART-MENTETH] (1891 – 7 Aug 1932) 1920s Sister of novelist A. S. M. Hutchinson, and author of four novels—Sea Wrack (1922), The Naked Man (1925), Great Waters (1926), and The Dark Freight (1928)—and one story collection, The Other Gate and Other Stories (1928).

HUXLEY, ELSPETH [JOSCELINE] (23 Jul 1907 – 10 Jan 1997) (née Grant) 1930s – 1980s Journalist, travel writer, biographer, and author of fifteen volumes of fiction. She is best known for her autobiographical novel, The Flame Trees of Thika (1959), about her childhood in Kenya, and its sequels, The Mottled Lizard (1962) and Love Among the Daughters (1968). Early in her career, she published three mystery novels, also set in Africa—Murder on Safari (1938), Murder at Government House (1939), and Death of an Aryan (1939, aka The African Poison Murders). These were described by the St. James Guide to Crime & Mystery Writers as "[a] cross between P.G. Wodehouse and Evelyn Waugh." She later returned to the genre with The Merry Hippo (1963, aka The Incident at the Merry Hippo), which deals with murders among a delegation concerned with decolonization of a fictional African state. Her other novels are Red Strangers (1939), The Walled City (1948), I Don’t Mind If I Do (1951), A Thing to Love (1954), The Red Rock Wilderness (1957), A Man from Nowhere (1964), The Prince Buys the Manor: An Extravaganza (1982), and Last Days in Eden (1984). During World War II, she published Atlantic Ordeal: The Story of Mary Cornish (1941), about the 1940 sinking of the City of Benares with 90 child evacuees on board. Among her numerous works of non-fiction and African travel writing, Out in the Midday Sun: My Kenya (1985) contains the non-fiction stories of early European settlers in Kenya.

Huxley, Helen           see FOLEY, HELEN

HUXTABLE, MARJORIE (4 Jul 1897 – 2 Jan 1955) (née Evans, later married name Fedden, aka Simon Dare, aka Marjorie Stewart) 1920s – 1950s Prolific author of nearly 100 romantic novels under her two pseudonyms, including The Little Upstart (1927), As a Peat Fire Burns (1928), The Splash of a Wave (1930), Handful of Stars (1932), Blind Madonna (1933), April Whirlwind (1934), Cocktail Bar (1936), Mask Concealing (1938), Hunt the Horizon (1940), Cometh the Whirlwind (1943), Crocus Under Foot (1945), Buttered Toast (1946), No Goose So Grey (1949), Monk's Island (1953), and Spray on the Wind (1956). She also published at least two children's books, including The Witch of the Green Glass Mountain (1939) and Riding School (1945), about riding stables during wartime.

Hyde, Eleanor           see COWEN, FRANCES [GERTRUDE]

HYDE, ELIZABETH (23 Dec 1891 – 19 Apr 1982) (pseudonym of Elizabeth Hyde Macmurray, née Campbell) 1930s, 1950s? Author of a single novel, Out of the Earth (1935), apparently influenced by D. H. Lawrence and autobiographical in subject, taking inspiration from her unconventional open marriage with professor and philosopher John Macmurray. The couple lived at one point with a male lover of Macmurray’s, and in the 1950s lived in Edinburgh. It’s so far impossible to be sure if she is also the otherwise untraced author of two girls' school stories, Valerie of Gaunt Crag (1956) and Babette of Bayfern Manor (1957), both set on the Cornish Coast. However, it’s known that Hyde Macmurray worked in a girls’ school for a time after her marriage. She is also referred to as an artist. An alternative theory, that the school story author was actually one Frances Newton, stems from a contemporary listing of the books in which that name is used instead of Hyde—perhaps the publisher allowing a real name to creep in instead of a pen name?

ILES, [GLADYS] MARGARET (27 Feb 1901 – 6 Jan 1976) 1930s – 1940s Author of five novels—Season Ticket (1934), Elder Daughter (1936), Perry’s Cows (1937), Burden of Tyre (1939), and Nobody’s Darlings (1942). The last is about wartime evacuees in a rural village. On the 1939 England & Wales Register, she is listed as a "teacher and novelist" living in King's Lynn, Norfolk.

INCE, GERTRUDE (dates unknown) 1920s – 1930s Untraced author of three romantic tales, The Silent Lover (1929), The Break in Her Love Line (1930), and A Girl Unknown (1931).

INCE, MABEL [EMILY] (25 Feb 1870 – 14 May 1941) 1900s – 1910s, 1930s Illustrator, children's writer, and author of at least four novels—The Wisdom of Waiting (1912), The Commonplace & Clementine (1914), The Preacher (1935) and Man's Estate (1937). The latter two, at least, seem to have received some critical acclaim. She published two children's books, Our Ups and Downs (1905) and The Darrydingle Dragon (1907).

INCHBOLD, A. CUNNICK (1858 – 21 Jan 1939) (née Ada Alice Cunnick, aka Mrs. Stanley Inchbold) 1890s - 1920 Wife of artist Stanley Inchbold and author of nine novels, as well as two travel books about the Middle East and Portugal. Titles include Princess Feather (1899), The Silver Dove (1900), The Letter Killeth: A Romance of the Sussex Downs (1905), Phantasma (1906), Love in a Thirsty Land (1914), Love and the Crescent (1918), and Sallie of Painter's Bakery (1920).

INCHFAWN, FAY (2 Dec 1880 – 16 Apr 1978) (pseudonym of Elizabeth Rebecca Ward, née Daniels) 1920s – 1940s Poet, memoirist, and novelist whose light verse and sketches about village life were highly successful, beginning with The Verse-Book of a Homely Woman (1920). Her sketches and memoirs include Journal of a Tent-Dweller (1931), Living in a Village (1937), As I Lay Thinking (1950), Something More to Say (1965), and Not the Final Word (1969). Salute to the Village (1943), which I reviewed here, is about wartime in Freshford, Somerset, where Inchfawn lived. Those Remembered Days (1963) is more of a formal memoir that covers the same period. Inchfawn also wrote three novels—Sweet Water and Bitter (1927), which, considerably darker than most of her work, deals with an unmarried girl who bears a child as the result of a rape, The Life Book of Mary Watt (1935), and Barrow Down Folk (1948). Mary: A Tale for the Mother-Hearted (1926) appears to be a short work of fiction.

Inglis, John           see CLIFFORD, LUCY JANE

INGLIS, SUSAN (12 Nov 1898 – 22 Apr 1970) (pseudonym of Doris Nicol Paske Mackie) 1930s – 1960s Author of more than 20 romantic novels, including Married Man's Girl (1934), Uncertain Flame (1937), Too Many Men (1939), Sara Steps In (1947), Jill Takes a Chance (1949), Highland Holiday (1952), The Loving Heart (1954), and The Old Hunting Lodge (1961).

INGLIS-JONES, ELISABETH [WINIFRED] (4 Jan 1900 – 18 Sept 1994) 1920s – 1940s Author of six novels, most set in Caredigion (then called Cardiganshire) in Wales and some at least sounding distinctly Brontëesque. Starved Fields (1929) was controversial for its portrayals of drunkenness, adultery, and illegitimate children in the 1890s. Crumbling Pageant (1932), which was reprinted by Honno Press in 2015, is about a young woman's obsession with a decaying mansion. Pay thy Pleasure (1939) is, according to Saturday Review, about "Esther Girling, a passionate woman who has been denied all passion by the fact of her physical ugliness, and Lew Gower, a man of much spirit and few scruples, who finds it useful to play the ardent lover. These are two elements of heat and cold mismated; they flare up briefly in a compound as violent as it is foredoomed." Her other novels are The Loving Heart (1942), Lightly He Journeyed (1946), and Aunt Albinia (1948). She later published the non-fiction Peacocks in Paradise (1950), about Hafod Uchtryd, a historic estate in Caredigion, and several biographies.

Ingram, Grace           see ADAMS, DORIS SUTCLIFFE

INNES-BROWNE, JESSIE ELIZABETH (1853 – 6 Apr 1914) (née Stickney, aka Mrs. Innes-Brown) 1890s – 1910s Author of at least three novels—Three Daughters of the United Kingdom (1897), Honour Without Renown (1900), and A Garland of Everlasting Flowers (1906)—and one posthumous children's title that qualifies her for this list, Little Donald (1916).

INSKIP, BETTY (6 Nov 1905 – 4 Aug 1945) (full name Constance Elizabeth Hamilton Inskip, married name Fellner) 1920s – 1930s Author of three novels—The Ravelled Sleeve (1929), which sounds like a cheerful romance, Step to a Drum (1931), described as "a picture of life through the eyes of an essentially modern girl", and Pink Faces (1939), set in Austria before the rise of the Nazis. Inskip died of complications from childbirth at the age of 39.

Iota           see KATHLEEN MANNINGTON CAFFYN

IRBY, CHRISTIAN (dates unknown) 1930s Untraced author of three novels—Cardinal Molina: The Story of a Matador (1938), Marcus Revell (1938), and Rainbow of Glory (1940). Researcher John Herrington narrowed her identity down to a mother and daughter who share the name—Louisa Christian Irby, née Fellowes (1874 – 20 Jan 1942) and Christian Geraldine Mary Irby (1913 – 1967)—but we've been unable to determine which is the novelist.

Ireland, Doreen           see LORD, DOREEN MILDRED DOUGLAS

Ireland, Noelle           see BRADLEY, NORAH MARY

IREMONGER, LUCILLE [D'OYEN] (3 Jun 1915 – 7 Jan 1989) (née Parks) 1950s, 1970s – 1980s Novelist, travel writer, and biographer born in Jamaica. Her novels are Creole (1950), The Cannibals (1952), about an amnesiac girl in Fiji, How Do I Love Thee (1976), a fictionalized biography of Robert and Elizabeth Browning, and My Sister, My Love (1981), about Lord Byron's love affair with his half sister. She also wrote several biographical works, including The Ghosts of Versailles (1957), an examination of Miss Moberly and Miss Jourdain's adventures at Versailles.

IRONS, GENEVIÈVE [MARY] (28 Dec 1855 – 13 Dec 1928) 1900s – 1910s Author of five novels with strongly Catholic themes. The Mystery of the Priest's Parlour (1911) has loosely crime-related themes, concerning a priest who serves a long prison sentence for murder before the real killer’s confession allows him to return to his calling. The others are A Maiden up to Date (1908), The Making of Molly (1908), The Damsel Who Dared (1909), and In the Service of the King (1912). She also published two books for children, Only a Doll and Other Sunday Afternoon Stories for Catholic Children (1904) and A Torn Scrap Book: Talks and Tales, Illustrative of the "Our Father" (1908).

IRONSIDE, JOHN (23 Feb 1866 - 1945) (pseudonym of Euphemia Margaret Tait) 1910s – 1940s Author of nine novels, most of them mysteries. Titles are The Red Symbol (1911), Forged in Strong Fires (1912), The Call-Box Mystery (1923, aka The Phone Booth Mystery), Chris: A Love Story (1926), Jack of Clubs (1931), The Marten Mystery (1933), Blackmail (1938), Lady Pamela's Pearls (1941), and The Crime and the Casket (1945). Her one title published under her own name was Every Day: A Book of Comfort and Counsel Compiled from the Scriptures (1933).

IRONSIDE, MARGARET HUNTER (25 Apr 1884 – 26 Sept 1970) 1920s – 1930s Author of six girls' school stories—The Girls of St. Augustine's (1920), The Mysterious Something (1925), The Black Sheep of St. Michael's (1928), Young Diana (1931), The Tale-Tellers' Club (1932), and Jane Emerges (1937).

IRVINE, A[MY]. (AMELIA) M[ARY]. (13 Apr 1866 – 20 Nov 1950) 1900s – 1930s Author of at least 18 volumes of fiction, including novels for adults and school stories for both girls and boys. She seems to have written four novels—The Specialist (1904), Roger Dinwiddie, Soul Doctor (1907), The Probationer (1910), and The Dreams of Orlow (1916)—some of these reflecting an interest in the occult. Sims & Clare praise her girls' school stories, which include Cliff House (1908), A Girl of the Fourth (1910), The Worst Girl in the School (1912), Nora, the Girl Guide (1913), Naida the Tenderfoot (1919), The Girl Who Was Expelled (1920), The Girl Who Ran Away (1921), The School Enemy (1925), A School Conspiracy (1926), Adventurous Jean (1934), Quiet Margaret (1935). Her other titles are The Two J. G.'s (1930) and Scouts to the Rescue (1932),

IRWIN, MARGARET [EMMA FAITH] (27 Mar 1889 – 11 Dec 1967) (married name Monsell) 1910s – 1950s Author of 20 volumes of fiction, best known today for her historical trilogy about Elizabeth I—Young Bess (1944), Elizabeth, Captive Princess (1948), and Elizabeth and the Prince of Spain (1953)—and for three early works of fantasy and time travel, including the novels Still She Wished for Company (1924) and These Mortals (1925) and the story collection Madame Fears the Dark (1935). Her other fiction is How Many Miles to Babylon? (1913), Come Out to Play (1914), Out of the House (1916), Who Will Remember? (1924), Knock Four Times (1927), Fire Down Below (1928), None So Pretty (1930), Royal Flush: The Story of Minette (1932), The Proud Servant: The Story of Montrose (1934), The Stranger Prince: The Story of Rupert of the Rhine (1937), The Bride: The Story of Louise and Montrose (1939), Mrs. Oliver Cromwell and Other Stories (1940), The Gay Galliard: The Love Story of Mary Queen of Scots (1941), and Bloodstock and Other Stories (1953). She published one biography, The Great Lucifer: A Portrait of Sir Walter Raleigh (1936), and one other very short work, South Molton Street (1927), with the subtitle, “Then as Now, the Favoured Resort of Modish Mayfair,” and includes details of William Blake’s time living on that street.

Averil Ives           see IDA [JULIE] POLLOCK