British & Irish Women Writers of Fiction 1910-1960 (Has - Hol)

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   HASKINS, MINNIE LOUISE (12 May 1875 – 3 Feb 1957) 1920s – 1930s Haskins was rocketed to lasting fame when lines from her poem "The Gate of the Year" were read on BBC by George VI in a Christmas 1939 broadcast. The poem was immortalized, and was also read at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in 2002. Haskins had also written two novels, the semi-autobiographical Through Beds of Stone (1928) and A Few People (1932), which the Spectator described as "a sympathetic story … which would have been even better without an improbable small boy, too much dialect, and too much hazy sentiment." She worked for many years at the London School of Economics.

HASSETT, MARGARET (c1898 - ????) (pseudonym of Kathleen Daly) 1930s – 1940s Sister of Anne DALY. Author of four novels, including Educating Elizabeth (1937) and its sequel Beezer's End (1949), about discontent among the staff of a girls' school, Sallypark (1945), about three daughters carrying on love affairs behind their strict father’s back, and Next to These Ladies (1940). I wrote about two of the novels here.

HASTED, JANE ELIZA (24 Dec 1909 - 1999) 1930s – 1940s Biographer and author of four novels—Our Mr. Richards (1933), Racing Demon (1936), Pattern of People (1947), and The Young Dorothea (1950). Her two biographies are Unsuccessful Ladies: An Intimate Account of the Aunts of Queen Victoria (1950) and The Gentle Amazon: The Life and Times of Lady Smith (1952).

HASTINGS, PHYLLIS [DORA] (5 Jun 1904 – 29 Nov 1994) (née Hodge, aka John Bedford, aka Julia Mayfield) 1950s – 1980s Author of more than 50 novels. One source refers to her as a romance writer, though a review of Rapture in My Rags (1954, aka Scarecrow Lover), about a young woman who meets a murderer on the run and believes he's a scarecrow she has inadvertently brought to life, sounds unusual to say the least. Other titles include As Long as You Live (1951), The Forest of Stone (1957, apparently her only title as Julie Mayfield), Sandals for My Feet (1960), The Night the Roof Blew Off (1962), The Swan River Story (1968), When the Gallows Is High (1971), The Image-Maker (1976), A Delight of Angels (1981), and Naked Runner (1987). She seems to have used her John Bedford pseudonym only for non-fiction about finding treasure in "junk shops."

HASTINGS, VALERIE (14 Feb 1902 - 1975) (née ???????) Author of a "picture strip" called Wendy and Jinx, from which two school stories came—Wendy & Jinx and the Dutch Stamp Mystery and Wendy & Jinx and the Missing Scientist (1957)—as well as two additional school stories, Jill at Hazlemere (1964) and Jill Investigates (1965). She was married to Michael Hastings (or at least took his name—a marriage has not been located in the records), but her origins remain uncertain.

Hatton, G. Noel           see CAIRD, MONA

Havens, Allen           see ALLEN, ALICE MAUD

HAVERFIELD, E[LEANOR]. L[UISA]. (18 Aug 1870 – 7 Feb 1945) 1890s – 1930s Author of about 40 works of children's fiction and adult romance, including school stories which Sims & Clare note are "redolent of the Victorian era," praising their psychological depth. The school stories include The Ghost of Exlea Priory (1905), Audrey's Awakening (1910), The Girls of St Olave's (1919), which features wartime air raids, The Luck of Lois (1920), The Discovery of Kate (1925), and Meriel's Choice (1933). Sims and Clare also single out Joan Tudor's Triumph (1918) for its unique tone of Gothic horror. Haverfield's other titles include Stanhope: A Romance of the Days of Cromwell (1902), The Squire (1903), A Human Cypher (1909), The Ogilvies' Adventures (1913), A Flight and a Friendship (1926), and Through the Green Door (1935).

HAVERS, ELINORE [MARY] (21 Sept 1905 – 2002) (née Miller) 1940s – 1970s Author of more than a dozen children's titles, most or all of them pony stories. Titles include Three Day Adventure (1948), Dream Pony (1962), Gay and the Ponies (1964), Pony Sleuths (1966), and The Merry-March Ponies (1974). See here for helpful information about her books.

Hawke, Richard           see BAINES, JOY

HAWKEN, [JOAN] PAMELA (26 Apr 1919 – 6 Jan 2011) (née Bussey) 1950s Author of three girls' career novels—Air Hostess Ann (1952), Pan Stevens: Secretary (1954), and Clare in Television (1955)—and two other children's titles, Percy Popalong (1953) and Chuffalong (1955), which may be for younger children.

Hawker, Mrs. Mildred           see STAFFORD, ANN

HAWKES, [JESSIE] JACQUETTA (5 Aug 1910 – 18 Mar 1996) (née Hopkins, later married name Priestley) 1950s, 1980 Best known for books on archaeology, such as The Archaeology of Jersey (1939) and Man on Earth (1954), and for her classic of nature writing A Land (1951), Hawkes also published one collection, Fables (1953, published in the U.S. as A Woman as Great as the World and Other Fables), and two novels. Kirkus called Providence Island: An Archaeological Tale (1959) "enchanting—a merger of the solemnity of a scientific expedition with an adventure in complete escape." Her other novel, A Quest of Love (1980), deals with reincarnation over thousands of years. She and her second husband, novelist and playwright J. B. Priestley, also collaborated on several projects, including Dragon's Mouth (1952), a play, and Journey Down a Rainbow (1955), about their travels in the southwestern U.S.

HAWKS, OLIVE [ALICE KATE] (1 Jan 1917 - 1992) (married names Burdett and ?????) 1940s A committed member of Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists, Hawks was interned for much of WWII. After the war, she published four novels—What Hope for Green Street? (1945), Time Is My Debtor (1947), These Frail Vessels (1948), and A Sparrow for a Farthing (1950).

HAWTREY, [PHYLLIS] VALENTINA (7 Nov 1877 – 9 Feb 1953) (aka Valentine Caryl) 1900s – 1910s Author of seven novels about the trials and tribulations of womanhood, most of them historical—Perronelle (1904) is set in 15th century Paris, Suzanne (1906) is set even earlier, while Rodmell (1908) is a 19th century family saga. The others are A Ne'er-do-well (1903, as Valentine Caryl), In the Shade (1909), Heritage (1912), and In a Desert Land (1915). She also translated an Italian 14th century text called The Life of Saint Mary Magdalen (1904). On the 1939 England & Wales Register, she is living in a convent in Sussex.

Hay, Frances           see DICK, ALEXANDRA

HAY, [AGNES BLANCHE] MARIE (6 Dec 1873 – 13 Dec 1938) (married name von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg [!!!]) 1900s – 1920s Half-sister of Duff Cooper. Author of three fictionalized biographies—A German Pompadour (1906), about Wilhelmine von Graevenitz, The Winter Queen (1910), about Elizabeth of Bohemia, and Mas'aniello: A Neapolitan Tragedy (1913), set during the 1647 rising in Naples. Her final novel, The Evil Vineyard (1923), deals with a haunted house and was reportedly of interest to Carl Jung.

HAY, MAVIS DORIEL (12 Feb 1894 – 26 Aug 1979) (married name Fitzrandolph) 1930s Author of three mystery novels, rediscovered and reprinted in the British Library Crime Classics series—Murder Underground (1934), mentioned here, about a thoroughly unsavory woman murdered in a Tube station, Death on the Cherwell (1935), reviewed here, about young women mixed up in a murder at Oxford, and The Santa Klaus Murder (1936), in which a country house gathering is enlivened by a murderer dressed as Santa. She also co-wrote several books about rural crafts in the 1920s.

HAYDEN, ELEANOR G[RACE]. (1 Oct 1865 – 30 Sept 1954) 1900s – 1910s Author of several story collections about village life in and around Berkshire, including Travels Round Our Village (1901), Turnpike Travellers (1903), Rose of Lone Farm (1905), and Islands of the Vale (1908). Her final book, Love the Harper (1914), may be a novel. With the advent of WWI, she did war work, became politically involved, and appears to have stopped writing.

Haye, Jan           see VINTON, ANNE

HAYES, NANCY M[ABEL]. (15 Jun 1886 – 19 Apr 1929) (went by Annie, married name Flexman) 1920s Author of four girls' school stories—The Fourth Form Invaders (1924), Peg Runs Away to School (1924), That Turbulent Term (1926), and The Castle School (1928)—and several other Guide and adventure stories, including The Plucky Patrol (1924), The Lost Cave (1926), The Boy From Nowhere (1927), Guides at Calamity Hill (1927), and Billy Lone Scout (1928).

HAYNES, ANNIE (1865 – 30 Mar 1929) 1920s Author of twelve mystery novels. Titles are The Bungalow Mystery (1923), The Abbey Court Murder (1923), The Secret of Greylands (1924), The Blue Diamond (1925), The Witness on the Roof (1925), The House in Charlton Crescent (1926), The Master of the Priory (1927), The Crow’s Inn Tragedy (1927), The Man with the Dark Beard (1928), The Crime at Tattenham Corner(1929), Who Killed Charmian Karslake? (1929), and The Crystal Beads Murder (1930), the last of which was completed by another author after her death. On the basis of textual evidence, mystery scholar Curtis Evans, in the Dean Street Press edition of that novel, speculates that the author may have been Lucy Beatrice MALLESON, who was best known for the mysteries she wrote under the pseudonym Anthony Gilbert. Dean Street Press has reprinted all twelve. Haynes had earlier published several novels in serial form, romantic in nature except for two—Lady Carew's Secret was an early version of The Abbey Court Murder and The Governess at the Priory later became The Master of the Priory. I wrote about Who Killed Charmian Karslake? here.

HAYNES, DOROTHY K[ATE]. (12 Oct 1918 – 27 Dec 1987) 1940s, 1970s Scottish author of horror and ghost stories, many of them uncollected until late in her life. She published three novels—Winter's Traces (1947), The Gibsons of Glasgow (1947), and Haste Ye Back (1973)—a story collection, Thou Shalt Not Suffer a Witch and Other Stories (1949), illustrated by Mervyn Peake, and a children's title, Robin Ritchie. Many of her later stories appeared in Peacocks and Pagodas and the Best of Dorothy K. Haynes (1981), though other stories apparently remain uncollected.

HAYNES, RENÉE [ORIANA] (23 Jul 1906 – 12 Oct 1994) (married name Tickell) 1920s - 1930s Married to novelist Jerrard Tickell. Known for her writings on ESP and psychic phenomena, including The Hidden Springs (1972), Haynes wrote three early novels—Neapolitan Ice (1928), about a young girl at Oxford, Immortal John (1932), and The Holy Hunger (1936). She also published biographies of Hilaire Belloc (1953) and Pope Benedict XIV (1970).

HAYTER, ALETHEA [CATHERINE] (7 Nov 1911 – 10 Jan 2006) (aka J. C. Fennessy) 1940s – 1950s Biographer, historian, and author of five pseudonymous novels—Eden Island (1941), The Siege of Elsinore (1948), which imagined a marriage between Hamlet and Ophelia, The Way to the Sea (1950), The Sonnet in the Bottle (1951), and The Londoners (1952). She is better known for the biographical A Sultry Month (1965), which traces the lives of the Brownings and others during one month in London in the summer of 1847, and for other scholarly and historical works, including Mrs. Browning: A Poet's Work and Its Setting (1962), Opium and the Romantic Imagination (1968), Horatio's Version (1972), which offered an alternative reading of Shakespeare's Hamlet, A Voyage in Vain: Coleridge's Journey to Malta in 1804 (1973), and The Wreck of the Abergavenny (2002), which examined the aftereffects of an 1805 shipwreck. I reviewed A Sultry Month here.

HEADLAM-MORLEY, AGNES (10 Dec 1902 – 21 Feb 1986) 1960s Primarily known for her prominent work as a historian at Oxford, working largely in the area of Anglo-German relations (perhaps inspired by the fact that her father was English and her mother German), she qualified for this list due to a single novella, Last Days: June 1944 to January 1945 (1960), based on the tragedy of a friend in Berlin in the final days of World War II.

HEARNDEN, BERYL (1897 – 22 Jan 1978) (aka Hearnden Balfour, combined pseudonym with Evelyn BALFOUR) 1920s – 1930s Progressive farmer, journalist, editor, and author of three mystery novels co-written with Evelyn BALFOUR. These are The Paper Chase (1927, aka A Gentleman from Texas), about an ex-officer who answers an ad and gets pulled into adventure and drama, The Enterprising Burglar (1928), about "a burglar, who robs from the rich and distributes to the poor, [and] escapes from a train wreck with the brief case of a dangerous enemy agent," and Anything Might Happen (1931, aka Murder and the Red-Haired Girl), about intrigue issuing from a reformed criminal and his double. All featured series character Inspectore Jack Strickland. She later collaborated with Louise Howard on What Country Women Use (1939), a guide for country women.

HEATH, IRENE [GWENDOLINE] (10 May 1905 – 16 Dec 1989) (née Crooks) 1930s – 1940s Author of one early children's title, The Browser Family and Their Great Day Out (1930), and two novels, Good Luck and Goodbye (1945) and Capricorn Colony (1946). She seems to have felt an affinity for boats, as the former is set on a voyage from a tropical island to England, via New York, in the last year of World War II, while the latter seems to deal with a group of holiday-makers who meet on a voyage to the South Pacific.

HEATH, MAUDE (dates unknown) 1930s Unidentified author of a single historical novel, Herb o' Grace (1937), which according to a review "follows the fortunes of her heroine through the reigns of Victoria, Edward VII, and George V., and gives a remakably vivid impression of the changing life of the times."

Heath, Sharon           see BRADLEY, NORAH MARY

HEATH, VERONICA (20 Oct 1927 – 13 May 2012) (pseudonym of Veronica Tegner, married name Blackett) 1950s – 1960s Author of five pony stories—Come Riding with Me (1955), Susan's Riding School (1956), Ponies in the Heather (1959), Come Show-Jumping with Me (1961), and Come Pony Trekking with Me (1964). See here for more information. She later wrote non-fiction titles about horses and riding.

HEATH-MILLER, MAVIS [BLANCHE] (22 Oct 1907 – 11 Dec 1977) (née Blackburn) 1940s – 1970s Author of more than 30 romantic novels, including Slightly Sophisticated (1945), We Have Our Dreams (1956), A Hint of Spring (1960), A Single Star (1962), Rich Relations (1965), Scent of Summer (1970), Build a High Wall (1972), The Narrow Stair (1974), and Storm Above the Park (1976). Before she began publishing, she ran a Studio of Dramatic Art. She later served as secretary of the Writers Guild.

HEATHCOTE, JANE (dates unknown) 1930s Unidentified author of a single novel, Before the Mirror (1935). A critic of the time summed up: "Pauline had ideals much above her station and her craving for fuller self-expression involved her in some tangled situations. Marriage, divorce, a period of forgetfulness in drink, fresh marriage—all these were portions of her sorry life."

HEATON, ROSE HENNIKER (29 Nov 1884 – 8 Oct 1975) (married name Porter) 1930s Author of humorous self-help guides including The Perfect Hostess (1931), The Perfect Cruise and Other Holidays (1935), and Running a House without Help (1949). She also published a series of humorous sketches, which just barely qualify her for this list, including Dinner with James (1931), Chez James (1932), Cruising with James (1934), and Contract with James (1935).

HEBERDEN, MARY VIOLET (28 Feb 1906 - 1965) (aka M. V. Heberden, aka Charles L. Leonard) 1930s – 1950s Born in England but lived in the U.S. for most of her adult life. Stage actress both in England and (more successfully) on Broadway, where for a year and a half 1935-1937 she played a supporting role in Victoria Regina, which starred Helen Hayes as Queen Victoria. Later, she was the author of more than 30 mystery and spy novels, many under the Charles L. Leonard pseudonym (the Charles L. from her father, Charles Lewis Heberden, a rector, who died when she was only 5, and the Leonard from her mother's maiden name). Her series characters were Desmond Shannon, a New York private investigator, Rick Vanner, a former Navy spy, and Paul Kilgerrin, a wounded veteran of World War II who works with American spy organizations, with his sidekick Gerry Cordent, a female pilot. Including all the ones I've tracked down, with alternate titles where I know them, her books are Death on the Doormat (1939), Fugitive from Murder (1940), Subscription to Murder (1940), Aces, Eights, & Murder (1941), The Lobster Pick Murder (1941), Deadline for Destruction (1942), Murder Follows Desmond Shannon (1942), The Stolen Squadron (1942), Murder Makes a Racket (1942), Murder Goes Astray (1943), The Fanatic of Fez (1943, aka Assignment to Death), The Secret of the Spa (1944), Murder of a Stuffed Shirt (1944), To What Dread End (1944), Expert in Murder (1945), Vicious Pattern (1945), Murder Cancels All Debts (1946), Pursuit in Peru (1946), They Can't All Be Guilty (1947), Search for a Scientist (1947), The 4th Funeral (1948), Drinks on the Victim (1948), The Case of the Eight Brothers (1948), Sinister Shelter (1949), Engaged to Murder (1949), Exit This Way (1950, aka You'll Fry Tomorrow), Secrets for Sale (1950), That's the Spirit (1950, aka Ghosts Can't Kill), The Sleeping Witness (1951), Treachery in Trieste (1951), Tragic Target (1952), and Murder Unlimited (1953).

HECTOR, BARBARA (12 Aug 1902 – 16 May 1985) (aka Hester Barrie) 1940s – 1970s Children's author and romantic novelist. She published one girls' school story, Champions in the Making (1943), two animal stories, The Wonder Pony (1943) and Friskie, the Train Saver (1943), and a mystery for children, The Moorland Mystery (1948), before turning to adult romance novels, many set in hospitals. Titles include No Through Road (1942), The Victim's Niece (1946), As the Stars Fade (1947), The Rainbow Road (1959), A Cottage for Nurse Lou (1962), Nurse Beth of Beatrice Ward (1965), Nurse Diana in Danger (1968), and The Astonishing Affair (1971).

HEDDLE, ETHEL F[ORSTER]. (16 Dec 1862 – 7 May 1942) (married name Marshall, aka Ethel F. H. Marshall) 1890s – 1930s Author of 19 volumes of fiction. Three Girls in a Flat (1896) is reportedly based on the real-life experiences of novelist Menie Muriel Dowie (author of three novels prior to 1910), American novelist Lillias Campbell Davidson, and poet and scholar Alice Werner, and may have provided Thomas Hardy with inspiration for the character of Sue Bridehead in Jude the Obscure. Other titles are Martin Redfern's Oath (1892), Marget at the Manse (1899), A Mystery of St. Rule's (1902), The Secret of the Turret (1905), Clarinda's Quest (1910), The House of Shadows (1920), Hidden in Her Heart (1920), and The Big Adventure (1934).

Hedworth, Barbara           see PEARSON, MOLLIE (MARY) SUSAN SEYMOUR

Heely, Maureen           see BRADSHAW, NINA

HEILGERS, LOUISE [HELENE HENRIETTA] (18 Oct 1882 – 28 Oct 1954) (married name Granville, aka Henrietta Heilgers) 1900s – 1920s Periodical author and novelist. Many of her stories were collected in books like Tabloid Tales (1911) and Somewhere in France: Stories of the Great War (1915). She also published ten novels, including (as Henrietta Heilgers) Stephen the Man (1909), and under her own name The Naked Soul: Three Years in a Woman's Life (1912), Sackcloth and Satin (1916), Babette Wonders Why (1916), That Red-Headed Girl (1917), An Officer's Wife (1918), The Green Heart (1921), Love and Life (1922), The Humming-Top (1927), and The Dark Lamp (1927).

HEINEMANN, MARGOT [CLARE] (18 Nov 1913 – 10 Jun 1992) 1960s Teacher, scholar, historian, and prominent member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, and author of a single novel, The Adventurers (1960), described as a roman à clef about the British Left in the 1940s and 1950s. She subsequently co-authored, with Noreen Branson, Britain in the 1930s (1973), and published Puritanism and Theatre: Thomas Middleton and Opposition Drama (1980).

HELME, ELEANOR [EDITH] (30 Dec 1887 – 13 Mar 1967) 1920s – 1950s Journalist and broadcaster on golf and author of books about golfing, didactic religious fiction for children, nature books, and a series of eight pony stories—Jerry, the Story of an Exmoor Pony (1930), The Joker and Jerry Again (1932), Mayfly, the Grey Pony (1935), Runaway Mike (1936), Shank's Pony (1946), Suitable Owners (1948), White Winter (1949), and Dear Busybody (1950). See here for details about these titles. Helme and her sister Vera lived together for much of their adult lives on Exmoor, and died within hours of each other.

HELY, ELIZABETH (1 Dec 1913 – 9 Mar 1981) (pseudonym of Nancy Elizabeth Brassey, née Leslie, later married name Younger) 1950s – 1960s Author of four crime novels which reflect particular interest in the psychology behind murder, and which were compared at the time with Simenon. Three of these feature French detective Antoine Cirret. In Dominant Third (1959, aka I'll be Judge, I'll Be Jury), partly set in Burgundy and Paris, Cirret investigates the murder of a newlywed woman with assistance from her husband—John at Pretty Sinister reviewed it here. In A Mark of Displeasure (1961), Cirret, visiting Edinburgh, pursues a murderer only his continental perspective can identify—William Deeck reviewed it here. Package Deal (1965) is set in Italy and features Cirret mixed up with a smuggling operation. The Long Shot (1963), in which Cirret does not appear, is set in the Austrian Schloss and features “two utterly unscrupulous characters setting off a chain of disasters.”

Heming, Eileen           see MARSH, EILEEN

HENDERSON, JANE (11 May 1907 - ????) 1930s Author of four novels—The Gay Forgetting (1936), Final Harvest (1937), Halo (1937), and After the Rain (1938)—which reviews suggest are “problem” stories. The Gay Forgetting, for example, is about a widow who marries a younger man, only to have him fall for her daughter. She can be found on the 1939 register living in Kent, source of her birth date, but there is too much confusion about her middle name to pursue her further unless more pieces fall into place.

HENNIKER, MRS. ARTHUR (1855 – 4 Apr 1923) (pseudonym of Florence Ellen Hungerford Milnes) 1890s – 1910s Best remembered now as the only author with whom Thomas Hardy ever collaborated on a work of fiction—a story called "The Spectre of the Real," which appeared in her collection In Scarlet and Grey: Stories of Soldiers and Others (1896)—Henniker also published eight other volumes of fiction. Her final novel, Second Fiddle (1912), which qualifies her for this list, deals with an unhappily married woman—OCEF called it "genuinely poignant." Other novels include Sir George (1891), Bid Me Good-Bye (1892), Foiled (1893), Sowing the Sand (1898), and Our Fatal Shadows (1907). In a 1917 letter, she mentions being pleased with a new story she was working on, but it seems this work never appeared. Some sources suggest that Hardy actively pursued a romantic relationship with Henniker but she insisted they remain friends. His letters to her were published as One Rare Fair Woman (1972).

HENRY, JOAN [CONSTANCE ANNE] (8 Apr 1914 – 15 Dec 2000) (married names Standage and Thompson) 1940s - 1950s Author, playwright, and screenwriter. Her earliest novels, This Many Summers (1947), Commit to Memory (1948), and Crimson Lake (1950), have been called romances, but the first at least sounds like it has a slight edge: "A love story in the Michael Arlen manner; scintillating and brittle, set against a background of bookies' odds and the chink of ice in a barman's mixer." After spending eight months in Holloway prison on forgery charges, she published the bestselling Who Lie in Gaol (1952) about her life in prison, followed by a novel, Yield to the Night (1954), about a woman awaiting execution. The former inspired the film The Weak and the Wicked (1953), and the latter was made into a film in 1956, for which Henry co-wrote the screenplay and received a BAFTA nomination. In addition to more screenwriting, she also penned the play Look on Tempests (1960), the first dealing with the topic of homosexuality after the Lord Chamberlain's ban on the subject was lifted the year before, the cast of which in its first production included Vanessa Redgrave and Gladys Cooper. Henry's second husband was film director John Lee Thompson, whose films included The Guns of Navarone and the original Cape Fear.

HENSON, JEAN (11 Aug 1912 – 19 Sept 1981) (née Constable) 1940s – 1950s Author of five children's detective tales—River Detectives (1947), Detectives in the Hills (1949), Detectives by the Sea (1950), Detectives Abroad (1952), and Detectives in Wales (1953).

HEPPLE, ANNE (16 Oct 1877 – 10 Nov 1959) (pseudonym of Anne Hepple Dickinson, née Batty) 1920s – 1940s Author of more than 20 romantic novels about Northumberland and the Scottish Borders. The North Wind Blows (1941) is set during World War II and features a land girl suspected of being a spy. The House of Gow (1948) is the favorite of many fans—bookseller Gill Bilski described it as "[a] love story set against a large bookshop and a borders' tower." Others include Jemima Rides (1928), Gay Go Up (1931), Scotch Broth (1933), Heyday and Maydays (1936), Sigh No More (1943), and Jane of Gowlands (1949).

Herald, Kathleen           see PEYTON, K. M.

HERBERT, ALICE [LOUISE GRISEWOOD] (21 Oct 1869 – 1941) (née Baker, earlier married name Low) 1900s – 1920s Mother of Ivy LITVINOV and author of five novels—The Measure of our Youth (1909), Garden Oats (1914), Heaven and Charing Cross (1922), Friend, You Are Late (1924), and A Pen and Ink Passion (1928). OCEF describes Garden Oats as "a sharp, funny, and probably autobiographical novel about a girl growing up and getting married, which focuses on the social difficulties of women." On the 1939 England & Wales Register, Herbert is residing with novelist Sybil LETHBRIDGE and her sister.

HERBERT, [BEATRICE] EVELYN [SHEARN] (24 Feb 1904 – 1979) 1930s, 1950s Welsh journalist and author of five (?) novels. In the 1930s, she published two novels set among Breconshire’s mining community. Anna Priestly (1932) deals with an unwed mother—"As may be expected, the woman pays, but she pays with a proud scorn and a grim reticence. … Miss Herbert has created an unforgettable character.” The White Peony (1935) examines a community of miners around Sugar Loaf in Wales, both before and after the mines were closed. In the 1950s, she returned to fiction in a very different tone (I thought perhaps they were two different authors sharing a name, but a review made clear the author was a Welsh journalist). Venus Unmasked (1952), apparently published only in the U.S., focuses on three young sisters making their way in a peaceful English village. Paris Is for Lovers (1953), published first in the U.S. and then in England in 1956, is a romantic comedy “by a writer of wit, wisdom and tender witchery." And Kiss the World Goodbye (1958), published only in the U.K., is “escapism in the best and fullest sense,” the tale of an unhappy woman teacher who inherits money and heads straight for Italy. It’s possible that Venus might be the US edition of one of the others, but the plot points mentioned in reviews don’t seem to line up. Researching her is challenging because of her more famous namesake, the daughter of the Earl of Carnarvon, whom I now know was the first modern person to enter King Tut’s tomb.

Herbert, Jean           see LESLIE, MARY ISABEL

HERBERT, JOAN (29 Jan 1902 – 2 Aug 1965) (pseudonym of Joan Doreen Lewis) 1930s – 1950s Author of eleven volumes of children's fiction, most either girls' school stories or Guiding stories. Titles are Lorna's First Term (1932), With Best Intentions (1935), The Three Halves (1937), The Trail of the Blue Shamrock (1937), The Wrights are Left (1938), One's a Pair (1939), Just an Ordinary Company (1939), Penelope the Particular (1939), A Tenderfoot's ABC (1940), Jennifer Gay (1944), and First-Time Jennifer (1959).

HERBERTSON, AGNES GROZIER (16 Aug 1873 – 18 Jul 1958) 1890s – 1940s Sister of Jessie Leckie HERBERTSON. Children's author and novelist whose work seems to veer toward the melodramatic. OCEF notes that The Ship That Came Home in the Dark (1912) "involves a woman substituting herself for a blind man's wife." That source also credits her with six novels in all, but I found seven titles which look like adult fiction. The others are A Book without a Man! (1897), Patience Dean: A Study in Temperament and Temptation (1904), The Plowers (1906), The Summit (1909), Deborah (1911), and We Know Each Other's Faces (1947). Much of her children's fiction seems to be for younger children.

HERBERTSON, JESSIE LECKIE (10 Jun 1877 – 18 Jul 1958) 1900s – 1930s Sister of Agnes Grozier HERBERTSON. Children's author and novelist. Her children's fiction includes several school stories—Betsy-Go-Lucky of the Fourth (1923), Schooldays at Beverley (1927), A Disagreeable Girl (1927), A New Girl at Maltby (1927), The Fourth Form at Beverley (1928), and Another Pair of Shoes (1929). She seems to have published six adult novels earlier in her career, including The Stigma (1905), Mortal Men (1907), Junia (1908), Young Life (1911), Borrowers of Fortune (1912), and Crofton's Daughter (1919).

HERD, [MARGARET] MURIEL [DE MILFONTES] (2 Jan 1880 – 8 Oct 1944) (married name Smart) 1890s, 1920s Apparently the author of only two books, separated by more than 30 years—The Solo Boy and Other Stories (1895) and Gill and the Others (1927)—about which little information is available.

HERIOT, ADELAIDE [BINNIE] (17 Aug 1894 – 6 Apr 1964) (née Murgatroyd, earlier married name Reed) 1930s - 1940 Playwright, novelist, and author of books on entertaining. Her four novels are upbeat romances—Secretary to Sir Mark (1937), about a young woman whose life changes when she becomes secretary to the owner of a luxury hotel line; That Sweet Passion (1937) is about four young people—a typist, a journalist, and two advertising copywriters—and the complications they get into; Virginia Goes Home (1937) is about a young English girl adapting to life in Scotland; and Beauty for Sale (1940), about a young beauty specialist whose attempts to shield a society girl from her jealous husband cause problems with her own beau. She had begun her career with two guides to entertaining, Enjoyable Parties (1936) and Gay Interiors (1936), and she published a one-act play, Who Steals My Purse, in 1951.

Heritage, A. J.           see ADAIR, HAZEL (1900-1990)

HERON-MAXWELL, BEATRICE (1859 – 7 Mar 1927) (née Eastwick, first married name Huddart) 1900s – 1920s Mother of Gladys HUDDART and sister of Florence E. EASTWICK. Author of four romantic novels, including A Woman's Soul (1900), The Queen Regent (1903), The Fifth Wheel (1916), and The Tenth Step (1923), the first and third of which were written with her sister. She also published a book of essays called Through a Woman's Eyes (1917).

HERVEY, JANE (10 Sept 1920 – 23 Jan 2019) (pseudonym of Naomi Blanche Thoburn McGaw, married names Jones, Wilder, & Bowlby) 1950s Author of a single novel, Vain Shadow (1963), reprinted by Persephone in 2015, which they describe as a "unique, astute and very funny black comedy." Though published after the end of this list's time frame, it was actually written in the early 1950s.

HESELTINE, OLIVE (22 Nov 1878 – 24 Nov 1950) (née Ilbert, aka Jane Dashwood) 1920s – 1930s Critic, essayist, and memoirist under her real name, who wrote two pseudonymous novels—Three Daughters (1929), set in London society at the turn of the century, and The Month of May (1931), with a heroine torn between love and her duty to her aging parents. I reviewed those here. She also published Conversation (1927), a guide to dinner-party repartee, and a memoir, Lost Content (1948).

HESSELL TILTMAN, MARJORIE [GWENDOLINE] (17 Jun 1900 – 26 Feb 1999) (née Hand) 1930s – 1960s Journalist, biographer, memoirist, and author of nine novels. Her father was a successful art dealer and presumably influenced her debut novel, Quality Chase (1939), which was, according to the Guardian, "as convincing on the human side as it is brilliant in its evocation of bustling Birmingham and the policies, the humours, and the drama of the antique trade." Goodbye to Lilly House (1948) is a family saga—"The background is first the heterogeneous art world at the turn of the century, then theatrical circles as the stage first met the challenge of movies, and finally a Fleet Street scene of English journalism." She and her husband traveled extensively in Asia, and she used those backgrounds in Born a Woman (1951), about several women in Japan in the aftermath of World War II, and Master Sarah (1959), about the opium wars in China. Other novels are Mrs Morel (1942), Cock's Nest (1954), Quality Chase's Daughter (1955), The Bridge of Love (1963), and Fanny's Farewell (1967). Hessell Tiltman also published a trio of memoirs of farming life—Cottage Pie (1940), A Little Place in the Country (1944), and The Birds Began to Sing (1952)—and two volumes of biographical pieces, God's Adventurers (1933), about missionaries, and Women in Modern Adventure (1935).

HEWARD, CONSTANCE (12 Mar 1884 - 1968) 1920s – 1960s Children's author known for her series for younger children about Ameliaranne, a Polyanna-ish girl who helps out her impoverished family, starting with Ameliaranne and the Green Umbrella (1920). A few of her titles do seem to be for older children, including Benjy Comes (1931), Jonathan's Children (1963), and The House on the Edge of the Moor (1968).

HEWARD, F. M. (dates unknown) 1940s Untraced author of a single girls' school story, Susan the Beast (1949).

HEWETT, HILDA [MARIAN] (25 Aug 1904 – 13 Dec 1991) (née Morley, aka Clare Compton) 1940s – 1960s Author of nearly twenty works of fiction, including at least two children's titles—Pantomime Christmas (1955) and Harriet and the Cherry Pie (1964), the latter (published in the U.K. under her "Clare Compton" pseudonym but under her own name in the U.S.) about two girls who spend several months in London with their aunt who runs a teashop. It was reviewed in No. 5 of The Scribbler. Hewett's novels for adults include Farewell Solitude (1942), Spring Serenade (1943), Dancing Starlight (1945), Kaleidoscope (1947), The Desert Shall Rejoice (1950), The Cactus Flower (1953), A Week at the Seaside (1955), Autumn Fires (1958), and A Calculated Risk (1964). I've written about her several times—see here.

HEWITSON, ANNE (dates unknown) 1920s Untraced author of a single short romance, The Dancer (1929).

HEWITT, KATHLEEN [DOUGLAS] (11 Nov 1893 – 12 Jun 1980) (née Brown, earlier married name Pitcher, aka Dorothea Martin) 1930s – 1950s Author of nearly two dozen novels, including mysteries and thrillers. Her wartime works include the energetic thrillers Lady Gone Astray (1941), about a young heiress with amnesia up against unscrupulous refugees, and The Mice Are Not Amused (1942), about a legal secretary who takes a job as doorman at a block of flats infested with Fifth Columnists. Her 1943 novel, Plenty Under the Counter, deals with the black market. Other titles include A Pattern in Yellow (1932), Black Sunshine (1933, as Dorothea Martin), Comedian (1934), Go Find a Shadow (1937), Stand-in for Danger (1940), Murder in the Ballroom (1948), Still the World Is Young (1951), and Harmony in Autumn (1955). She also published a memoir, The Only Paradise (1945). (Thank you to Grant Hurlock for information on this author.)

HEWLETT, DOROTHY [KATE] (25 Oct 1893 – 1979) (married name Kilgour) 1930s – 1950s Playwright, biographer, and novelist. She published several one-act plays 1929-1937, followed by Adonais: A Life of John Keats (1937). Much of her work is set in the early Victorian world she had researched for that book. Victorian House (1939) harked back stylistically (and, at 500+ pages, in girth) to classic Victorian novels, and deals with a young man who runs away from an over-strict home along with a female cousin; the two have ups and downs culminating in the Great Exhibition of 1851. A Shocking Bad Hat (1941) is a mystery/thriller, following a Bow Street detective’s attempts to avert a plot to murder Queen Victoria. Better Than Figs (1943) features a young woman writer whose friendship with another woman influences her life, only to cause disillusionment after her early death. The Two Rapps (1944) “transports us to the Victorian era with its unhurried calm, and the reader is whisked away to the quiet of the English countryside, as a background to a story of frustration and cunning cutting across the love affairs of two sisters.” The Flying Horse (1946) focuses on the owner of a historic inn and his son. The Flowing Tide (1955) follows its strong-willed heroine from the late 1870s to the early 20th century. She published a second biography, Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1953), and, much later, a short historical work, Harrogate College 1893-1973 (1981). Hewlett’s grandfather was the founder of the Kilburn Times newspaper.

HEWSON, MAXINE (dates unknown) 1940s – 1950s Unidentified author of four novels. Keeping House for Jan (1947) focuses on “London’s leading beauty expert” and the housekeeper he met in Devon. Suzannah Sings (1948) is about a young singer and the influence of a temperamental impresario. There’s No Profit In It (1951) features the triplet daughters of a philosopher, who set out to make their fortune with an array of business ventures. And A Genius at Large (1952) follows a film unit shooting on location in the Highlands. For an author whose books were widely reviewed, it’s surprising that I’ve not yet been able to find any clues to trace her in records.

HEYER, GEORGETTE (16 Aug 1902 – 5 Jul 1974) (married name Rougier, aka Stella Martin) 1920s – 1970s Author of nearly 60 novels, among them dozens of the Regency romances for which she's best known, such as These Old Shades (1926), Royal Escape (1938), The Reluctant Widow (1946), Arabella (1949), The Grand Sophy (1950), Cotillion (1953), Bath Tangle (1955), and The Unknown Ajax (1959). She also wrote 12 popular, clever mystery novels (apparently with some assistance from her husband in formulating the puzzles)—Footsteps in the Dark (1932), Why Shoot a Butler? (1933), The Unfinished Clue (1934), Death in the Stocks (1935), Behold, Here's Poison (1936), They Found Him Dead (1937), A Blunt Instrument (1938), No Wind of Blame (1939), Envious Casca (1941), Penhallow (1942), Duplicate Death (1951), and Detection Unlimited (1953). Among her earliest novels were four with contemporary settings, which she apparently tried to suppress in later years as being too autobiographical and too revealing of her own life.  These are Instead of the Thorn (1923), Helen (1928), Pastel (1929), and Barren Corn (1930). Heyer's third novel, The Transformation of Philip Jettan (1923, later reprinted as Powder and Patch) was first published under her pseudonym. I wrote about Bath Tangle here. There’s a very detailed site about Heyer here.

HIBBERT, ELEANOR [ALICE] (1 Sept 1906 – 19 Jan 1993) (née Burford, aka Eleanor Burford, aka Jean Plaidy, aka Elbur Ford, aka Ellalice Tate, aka Kathleen Kellow, aka Victoria Holt, aka Philippa Carr) 1940s – 1990s Author of nearly 200 novels under her multiple pseudonyms. Her earliest works, beginning in 1941, were traditional romances under her maiden name, Eleanor Burford, but in the mid-1940s she began writing historical fiction under her Jean Plaidy pseudonym. By the late 1950s, she had used the name Elbur Ford for four novels based around well-known Victorian crimes (see my Mystery List), and the names Kathleen Kellow and Ellalice Tate for lighter historical romances. Her biggest success, however, began in 1960 with Mistress of Mellyn (1960), the first of 31 Gothic romances under the name Victoria Holt—which, interesting, was believed by many readers at the time to be a pseudonym of Daphne DU MAURIER. Thereafter, she focused on Holt and Plaidy titles until 1972, when she created her Philippa Carr pseudonym for 19 novels which have been called "historical Gothics." Her titles are far too numerous to list, but her entry in Contemporary Popular Writers sums up by saying Hibbert's best work "wove fascinating facts drawn from English history into simply written, compelling tales of mystery, intrigue, and of course, passion."

HICHENS, JACOBINE [NAPIER] (4 Oct 1920 – 21 May 1971) (neé Menzies-Wilson, later married name Sackville-West) 1950s Cousin by marriage of Vita SACKVILLE-WEST and daughter of Jacobine MENZIES-WILSON. Barrister and author of three novels—Noughts and Crosses (1952, aka The Marriage of Elizabeth Whitacker), about the engagement of an Anglican woman to a Catholic man, Touch and Go (1953), about the troubled relations among a group of young people in London, and Profit and Loss (1955), about a beautiful singer who is caught up in World War II in Asia, spends time in a prison camp, and returns to postwar London to face up to the complicated relationships that have resulted. Hichens was married to Lionel Bertrand Sackville-West, the 6th Lord Sackville, and lived at Knole from 1960 until her death.

HICKEY, T[HEODOSIA]. F[RANCES]. W[YNNE]. (1 Apr 1895 – 25 Dec 1956) (née Hannay) 1930s – 1940s Author of eleven volumes of fiction, including at least two mystery novels, The Corpse in the Church (1934) and The Hand, or, Mystery at Number Ten (1937). Other novels are Semi-Detached (1932), Easter Week (1933), The Birthday Party (1934), Nancy Emery (1935), and Oh, Mrs. Hopkins! (1936), while The Unexpected Adventure (1935), Bulldog Sheila, or, The Gang (1936), Alice and James Discover Their Country (1941), and Adventures at Littleacres (1947) appear to be for children.

HIGSON, KIT (KITTY) (1 Jan 1887 – 16 Mar 1962) 1920s – 1950s Author of more than two dozen works of fiction, including novels and children's books. Titles include The Law Allows (1928), The Dull House (1934), Good Grief (1940), Courtesy Curtains (1942), Setting Off (1944), Small Potatoes (1948), Riding Light (1950), and Evil Communications (1952). Her final title for children, Cop Shooter (1958), is not as disturbing as it sounds—it's about a dog named Cop, owned by one Simon Shooter.

Hill, Anne           see MUSKETT, NETTA

HILL, CECILIA [ALBERTHA] (1868 - ?1933) 1910s – 1920s Travel writer and author of five novels—The Citadel (1917), Wings Triumphant (1918), Stone Walls (1919), Can These Things Be? (1923), and Sweet Enemy (1924)—about which contemporary reviews were remarkably vague, citing "feminine charm" and "interesting and natural characters," but The Citadel appears to deal with "the domestic fortunes of a schoolmistress in England", though it ends with a vivid description of the fall of Dinant in Belgium in World War I. Some reviews mention that Hill was herself a schoolteacher at Wentworth Hall in London, which makes her the Cecilia Albertha Hill b. 1868, who is teaching there on the 1911 census. The 1933 death record is plausible but not certain.

HILL, DIANA [MARIAN] MURRAY (18 Oct 1910 – 16 Jul 1994) 1940s Apparently a successful and acclaimed stage actress and author of a single novel, Ladies May Now Leave Their Machines (1944), about women factory workers in World War II. According to Geoffrey G. Field, that work "combines documentary reportage of factory work, fictional stories about other women workers, and detailed observations about her own physical and psychological responses to industrial work," but "[t]he result is an inferior, fragmented novel—indeed scarcely a novel at all—but a mine of interesting detail." She appears to have also written one play, The Wonderful Ingredient (1934).

HILL, DORAN (dates unknown) (pseudonym of Doris Marian Hill) 1930s Author of four novels. Naked and Alone (1930) is set in the Latin Quarter of Paris, about a young sculptress and her search for love. This Thing Called Marriage (1931), set partly among American newspaperfolk, is about a young woman making good after being left by her husband. Man Proposes (1932), set among the English community in Paris, deals with a jilted man overcoming his obstacles. And The Loves of Anne (1933) features a forty-ish spinster who suddenly decides it’s time to get all she can from life. The British Library catalogue provides her real name, but I still haven’t been able to trace her with certainty in public records.

HILL, LORNA (21 Feb 1902 – 17 Aug 1991) (née Leatham) 1940s – 1970s Author of more than 30 children's titles and two novels for adults. She is best known for her girls' ballet stories, beginning with A Dream of Sadler's Wells (1950) and continuing through more than a dozen volumes, which portray a somewhat romanticized view of ballet training. Hill's early books were written to entertain her own daughter, and she had completed eight by the time she began to publish her "Marjorie" series, beginning with Marjorie & Co. (1948). The fourth title in that series, Northern Lights, was written as a Christmas present for her daughter in 1941, but by the time the stories were being published, its wartime setting was deemed not of interest to readers. It was finally privately published in 1999 and then reprinted by Girls Gone By. She also published her "Patience" series (1951-1955) and her "Dancing Peel" series (1954-1962). Her most realistic books, about an impoverished clergyman and his family, were The Vicarage Children (1961) and its sequels, More About Mandy (1963) and The Vicarage Children in Skye (1966). Her two works for adults were The Other Miss Perkin (1978), reprinted in recent years by Greyladies (I wrote about it here), and Scent of Rosemary (1978), both romantic in themes.

HILL, MILDRED (1878 - ????) 1910s – 1920s Poet, religious writer, and author of five children's titles, including His Little Bit o' Garden (1913), Michael's Quest (1920) (both referred to as missionary stories), "Princess Daisy-Flower" and the White Knight (1923), Bennie's Adventures (1923), and Mollie's Quilt (1927).

HILL, O[LIVE]. P[RIMROSE]. (19 Apr 1904 – 10 Mar 1985) (married name Readman) 1930s Author of a single children's book, Dernham Days (1934), set partly in a girls' school.

HILL, PAMELA (26 Nov 1920 – 16 Oct 2016) (ake Sharon Fiske) 1950s – 2000s Prolific author of more than 60 romance novels (and at least one crime novel) over nearly five decades, most historical in setting and characterized by their tough, courageous heroines. Titles include Flaming Janet (1954), Marjorie of Scotland (1956), Here Lies Margot (1957), Forget Not Ariadne (1965), Whitton's Folly (1975), Daneclere (1978), Knock at a Star (1981) Still Blooms the Rose (1984), The Loves of Ginevra (1990), Aunt Lucy (1993), Murder in Store (1996), and Bailie's Wake (2000).

HILL, PRUDENCE M[YFANWY]. (1921 – 14 Jun 2005) (married name Maxfield, some records show middle name as Mifanwy) 1940s Author of a single children's title, Wind and Weather Permitting (1954), described as a sailing holiday story. She also published a biographical work about her father, To Know the Sky: The Life of Air Chief Marshall Sir Roderic Hill (1962).

HILL, TRISTRAM (20 Apr 1888 – 2 Aug 1971) (pseudonym of Yseult Alice Mary Lechmere Guppy, married names Low and Bridges, aka Yseult Bridges) 1930s Later the author, under her own name, of several true crime stories about famous murder cases, in the 1930s she published two pseudonymous novels—Questing Heart (1934) and Creole Enchantment (1936)—about which little information is available. Her memoir was Child of the Tropics: Victorian Memoirs (1980).

Hills, Marguerite           see BRADSHAW, NINA

HILTON, AGNES AUBREY (13 Aug 1878 – 9 Apr 1942) 1900s – 1930s Author of more than a dozen religious and inspirational titles. Midsummer Madness (1920), The Hermit of Eskdale (1933), and The Promise of Life: A Romance of Middleton, at least, appear to be novels. She also published An Imaginative Child: Studies in a Child's View-Point (1913).

Hinde, Susan           see CHITTY, SUSAN

HINE, MURIEL (18 Jan 1873 – 16 Jun 1949) (married name Coxon, aka Muriel Hine Coxon, aka Mrs. Sydney Coxon, aka Nicholas Bevel) 1910s - 1950 Author of nearly three dozen romantic novels, including April Panhasard (1913), The Hidden Valley (1919), The Ladder of Folly (1928), The Door Opens (1935), Man of the House (1940), The Second Wife (1943), and Liar's Progress (1950). The Best in Life (1918), later made into the film “Fifth Avenue Models” (1925), deals with a young woman who is half French and living in wartime London.

HINKSON, PAMELA [MARY] (19 Nov 1900 – 26 May 1982) (aka Peter Deane) 1920s – 1950s Daughter of Katharine TYNAN. Author of more than a dozen volumes of fiction for adults and children. Her best known novel seems to be The Ladies' Road (1932), later reprinted by Penguin. The Spectator called it a "tale of war time and country life in Ireland," but went on to comment about Hinkson's "irritating prejudice against the comma." She published two early novels under her pseudonym—The Victors (1925) and Harvest (1926). Her other novels are The End of All Dreams (1923), Wind from the West (1930), set in Brittany, The Deeply Rooted (1935), Golden Rose (1944), set in India, and The Lonely Bride (1951), tracing one family in the years from 1890 to just after World War I. Early in her career, Hinkson published eight girls' school stories, which Sims and Clare call competent but conventional. These are The Girls of Redlands (1923), Patsey at School (1925), St. Mary's (1927), Schooldays at Meadowfield (1930), Victory Plays the Game (1933), Victory's Last Term (1936), and two more with uncertain dates, Victory's First Term (about 1932) and The New Girl. She revised and completed her mother's final novel, Connor's Wood (1933), and published a memoir, Irish Gold (1939), and a travel book, Indian Harvest (1941).

Hobson, Coralie           see SALT, SARAH

Hockaby, Stephen           see MITCHELL, GLADYS

HOCKING, [MONA NAOMI] ANNE [MESSER] (1890 – 17 Mar 1966) (married names Dunlop & Messer, aka Mona Dunlop, aka Mona Messer) 1910s, 1930s – 1960s Author of more than 50 novels, mostly mysteries. She hailed from a very writerly family—father Joseph, uncle Silas, aunt Salome, and younger sisters Elizabeth NISOT and Joan Carew SHILL were all published novelists as well. Anne Hocking published her first novel, as Mona Dunlop, a non-mystery called The Guarded Trust, in 1915, which was dismissed by Dominion as amateurish and sentimental. She didn't publish again until 1930, when A Castle For Sale began a string of successful mysteries which appeared at regular intervals until her death. Her series characters were Inspector Curtis and Sergeant Flyte. Other mysteries include Cat's Paw (1933), Walk Into My Parlour (1934), Stranglehold (1936), What A Tangled Web (1937), The Wicked Flee (1940), Six Green Bottles (1943), The Vultures Gather (1945), At the Cedars (1949), Death Among the Tulips (1953), And No One Wept (1954), Relative Murder (1957), Poisoned Chalice (1959), The Thin Spun Life (1960), and He Had To Die (1962). In the 1930s, she also published nearly a dozen mainstream novels using her married name, Mona Messer. These include Eternal Compromise (1932), Playing Providence (1934), Cuckoo’s Brood (1935), Marriage is Like That (1938), and The Gift of a Daughter (1940).

HODDER, MURIEL [WINIFRED SYLVESTER] (16 Jun 1897 – 12 Jul 1972) (married name Hughes) 1920s Author of a single children's title, Pax, the Adventurous Horse (1928).

Hodges, Barbara           see CAMBRIDGE, ELIZABETH

HODGKIN, LUCY VIOLET (19 Mar 1869 – 6 Apr 1954) (married name Holdsworth, aka L. V. Holdsworth) 1920s, 1960s Primarily the author of Quaker-related non-fiction and biography, Hodgkin also wrote a children's title, The Larks' Nest (1920), and short stories, collected after her death into Fierce Feathers and Other Stories (1965). Seas of the Moon (1946) is her memoir.

HODGKINSON, FLORENCE (20 Dec 1855 – 18 Aug 1934) (married name Ryland) 1870s – 1930s(?) Prolific and popular author of novels and periodical fiction described as "heart-warming moral tales". It's difficult to trace the full extent of her periodical work, but in regard to her book publications, Little Means and Large Hearts appeared in 1876 when she was just into her twenties, and Folly of Youth appeared in 1935. Other known titles include For Love Only (1908), The Convent Belle (1914), His Fair Lady (1915), and Clear Shining After Rain (1927). She married Richard Henry Ryland, who was rector of Ayot St. Peter 1912-1939.

HODGSON, GERALDINE EMMA (1865 – 3 Dec 1937) 1890s – 1910s Biographer and author of non-fiction on topics ranging from Christian saints and histories of education to a teacher's guide to Montaigne. She also published at least four novels—In the Wilderness of This World (1899), A Tragedy of Errors (1900), Antony Delaval, LLD (1900), and The Subtle Thing That's Spirit (1902). One later work, Across the Forest and Far Away (1911), appears to be children's fiction and thus qualifies her for this list.

HODGSON, ROSE MARIE (13 Aug 1910 – 11 Jan 1969) (married name Foottit) 1930s Poet and author of one novel, Rosy-Fingered Dawn (1934), described by Anna Bogen as an "experimental university novel." Her poems are published in Patrixbourne: Five Country Poems (1958) and Last Poems (1969).

HOGARTH, MARJORIE [MACQUEEN] (10 Mar 1895 - 19 Feb 1962) 1930s Author of three novels—Marriage for Two (1938), The Eyes of a Fool (1939), and The Intruder (1940)—about which little information is available.

HOLDEN, [BEATRICE] INEZ [LISETTE] (21 Nov 1906 – 30 May 1974) 1920s – 1950s Journalist and author of eight novels and two story collections, including Night Shift (1941), set in a wartime aircraft factory, which Jenny Hartley described as "narrative by snapshot, setting up and willfully shattering the expectations of fiction." There's No Story There (1944) is a rather bleaker but quite interesting tale set in a vast ordnance factory, where a snowstorm strands workers for a night, and her story collection, To the Boating (1945), likewise includes some vivid portrayals of wartime life. Her other novels are Sweet Charlatan (1929), Born Old, Die Young (1932), Friend of the Family (1933), It Was Different at the Time (1943), The Owner (1952), and The Adults (1956). Her other story collection is Death in High Society and Other Stories (1933). Among Holden's close friends were H. G. Wells and George Orwell. In his memoir, Anthony Powell referred to her as "a torrential talker, an accomplished mimic … excellent company."

HOLDER, MARY [ADELAIDE] (22 Jan 1895 – 26 Jul 1980) (married name Bligh) 1930s Stage actress with the Stratford-upon-Avon Shakespearean Company and author of six novels—The Dusky Highway (1932), The Strange Tale of Eastermain (1933), Radiant Interlude (1933), Rich Earth (1934), To-day Is Ours (1935), and Moonlight in Winter (1937).

HOLDSWORTH, ANNIE E. (25 Apr 1860 – 10 Jul 1917) (pseudonym of Eliza Ann Holdsworth, married name Lee-Hamilton, aka Max Beresford) 1890s – 1910s Born in Jamaica to British parents and raised in Britain, Holdsworth published fourteen volumes of fiction, including A Garden of Spinsters (1904), a story collection which OCEF compares to the work of American author Sarah Orne Jewett. Her other works are Miss Grahame's Memorial and Other Stories (1893), Joanna Traill, Spinster (1894), The Years That the Locust Hath Eaten (1895), Spindles and Oars, or, Chronicles of Skyrie (1896), a series of sketches set in a Scottish fishing village, The Gods Arrive (1897), The Valley of the Great Shadow (1900), Great Lowlands (1901), A New Paolo and Francesca (1904), The Iron Gates (1906), Lady Letty Brandon (1909), The Little Company of Ruth (1910), Dame Verona of the Angels (1912), and The Book of Anna (1913).

HOLDSWORTH, ETHEL CARNIE (1 Jan 1886 – 28 Dec 1962) (aka Ethel Carnie, aka Ethel Holdsworth) 1910s – 1920s Editor and activist as well as novelist and poet. Called by ODNB the first working class British woman writer, Holdsworth began working in a mill at the age of eleven and later described the experience as slavery. She published three volumes of poetry and eleven works of fiction, including a story collection, The Lamp Girls and Other Stories (1913), and ten novels—Miss Nobody (1913), Helen of Four Gates (1917), The Taming of Nan (1919), The House that Jill Built (1920), The Marriage of Elizabeth (1920), General Belinda (1924), This Slavery (1925), The Quest of the Golden Garter (1927), Eagles' Crag (1928), and Barbara Dennison (1929). Helen of Four Gates was filmed in 1920. There's a chapter on Holdsworth in Rediscovering Forgotten Radicals: British Women Writers, 1889-1939 (1993), edited by Angela Ingram and Daphne Patai.

Holdsworth, L. V.           see HODGKIN, LUCY VIOLET

Holgar, Paxton           see BOYD, MARY STUART

Holland, Ena           see HOLLAND, RUTH

Holland, Hester           see GORST, HESTER

HOLLAND, LYDIA (1910 – 6 Nov 1982) (pseudonym of Vivyan Leonora Eyles, married name Praz) 1940s – 1960s Daughter of journalist and novelist Leonora EYLES. Translator from Italian and German and author of four novels. The Evil Days Come Out (1947) is about the love and passions of an Englishwoman living in Rome during World War II. The Stepson (1952) is about the relationship of an Englishwoman and a German refugee from Hitler, and the challenges presented by his teenage son from his previous wife, who has grown up in Germany during war and occupation. I could find no details about The Initial Error (1960), but The Honeyed Life (1961) features "elegant and intelligent people" in a Greek setting: "Even the less estimable characters with their peculiar perversions and preoccupations have a certain dignity." Holland married an Italian in 1934 and lived in Italy throughout World War II. Her mother’s book For My Enemy Daughter (1941), was composed of wartime letters she wrote to her daughter but could not send.

HOLLAND, RUTH (29 Oct 1898 – 26 Nov 1963) (pseudonym of Edith Holland, married name Jones, aka Ena Holland) 1920s – 1930s, 1950s Sister-in-law of J. B. Priestley and author of six novels—The Undercurrent (1926, as Ena Holland), Country Tune (1931), The Lost Generation (1932), Time and the Singletons (1933), Storm and Dream (1936), and One Crown with a Sun (1952).

HOLLANDER, [AUGUSTA EDNA] GWENDA (7 Apr 1907 – 9 Aug 1998) (née Levy) 1950s Author of three novels—Lucia (1950), The Stubborn Field (1952), and One of Three (1953)—which contemporary reviews suggest may contain a fair amount of melodrama. For example, The Stubborn Field is about a tormented artist who comes to a tragic end.

HOLLINGSWORTH, ROSALIND [ANTOINETTE] (23 Mar 1887 – 26 Jan 1955) (née Mitchelson, later records show "Mercedes" as additional middle name) 1930s Author of a single novel, Neither Gold Nor Silver (1934).

HOLLIS, GERTRUDE (1845 - 1943) 1890s – 1930s Prolific author of religious non-fiction and novels, some of them historical in subject. Titles include A Slave of the Saracen (1904), Between Two Crusades: A Tale of A.D. 1187 (1908), Jem Forster's Revenge (1913), The Blessed Bands (1919), and Aunt Clive's Excursions (1928).

HOLME, [EDITH] CONSTANCE (7 Oct 1880 – 17 Jun 1955) (married name Punchard) 1900s – 1930s, 1950s Influenced by writers such as Thomas Hardy and Joseph Conrad, Holme was a successful "regional" writer whose works mainly focused on rural Westmorland, where she was born and spent most of her life. Widely acclaimed in her lifetime (her early works appeared as Oxford World's Classics in the 1930s), Holme wrote a dozen novels and one story collection as well as several plays. Her most acclaimed novels include The Lonely Plough (1914), The Old Road from Spain (1916), Beautiful End (1918), The Splendid Fairing (1919) (which won the prestigious Femina Vie Heureuse prize later won by the likes of Mary Webb and Virginia Woolf), The Trumpet in the Dust (1921), The Things which Belong (1925), and He-who-Came (1930). Two early novels, Staggie Three (1905) and Hugh of Hughsdale (1906), were serialized. The remaining novels are Crump Folk Going Home (1913), The Home Coming (1916), and The Jasper Sea (1955), the last of which, written long after her other work and featuring a village gravedigger protagonist, has, according to the Orlando Project, never been published.

Holmes, Alex           see SCOTT, AIMÉE BYNG

Holt, Martha           see WILLANS, KATHARINE M[ARY].

Holt, Victoria           see HIBBERT, ELEANOR

HOLTBY, WINIFRED (23 Jun 1898 – 29 Sept 1935) 1920s – 1930s Journalist, poet, and author of eight volumes of fiction. Best known for her epic of village government, South Riding (1935), which was made into a film starring Ralph Richardson in 1937 and into a television miniseries in 2011. Her other novels are Anderby Wold (1923), The Crowded Street (1924, reprinted by Persephone), The Land of Green Ginger (1927), Poor Caroline (1931), and Mandoa, Mandoa! (1933). She published two story collections, Truth Is Not Sober and Other Stories (1934) and the posthumous Pavements at Anderby (1937), while a much later collection, Remember! Remember!: Selected Stories (1997) includes some additional uncollected stories. She was a close friend of Vera BRITTAIN, though their early friendship was rocky (see Brittain's portrayal of Holtby in her first novel, The Dark Tide). After her death, Holtby's letters to Brittain were published as Letters to a Friend (1937), and in 1940 Brittain published Testament of Friendship: The Story of Winifred Holtby.