Eleanor Burford

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eleanor Alice Burford , married Hibbert (born September 1, 1906 in Kensington , † January 18, 1993 ) was a British writer .

Life

Hibbert came from a humble background. She left school in 1922 at the age of sixteen and then began working as a typist for a jeweler in Hatton Garden ( City of London ). Through her employer, she met the businessman George Percival Hibbert, whom she married soon after, although he was twenty years older.

Even after she became a bestselling author, she always lived modestly throughout her life. Besides her books and research, she was only excited about King's Lodging in Sandwich , Kent . She had acquired this mansion, which several English kings had already visited, and had it restored.

When her husband died, her King's Lodging became too big and she settled in a small, comfortable apartment in London . As a widow, she would go on a cruise every winter. Her last trip was to take her around the Mediterranean. She died at the age of 86 on January 18, 1993 at sea between Athens and Port Said , Egypt .

reception

Hibbert read enthusiastically since school and, according to her own admission, she saw her literary role models in the Brontë , Charles Dickens , George Eliot , Victor Hugo and Leo Tolstoy siblings .

After her own first literary attempts, which were not very satisfactory, she was also able to earn money with short stories for the Daily Mail and the Evening News . Later she also wrote on historical topics in the feature pages .

She published her first novel in 1941 under her own name Eleanor Burford and by 1962 used that name for 32 novels. She used her best-known pseudonym , Jean Plaidy , between 1948 and 1993, although some novels, which had only been published under a different name, came onto the market again under this name. With the different names, she also wanted to delimit the individual genres .

She wrote five novels under Elbur Ford from 1950 to 1953, and eight novels under Kathleen Kellow between 1952 and 1960 . As Ellalice Tate there were five novels between 1956 and 1961 and as Anne Percival , she published a single novel in 1960. Your best-known pseudonyms were Victoria Holt (from 1960 to 1993) and Philippa Carr (from 1972 to 1993). Many readers who knew her by one name rarely suspected her from the others.

Hibbert's oeuvre comprises around 200 historical novels , in which she often imaginatively tells real historical events or develops them congenially; as Jean Plaidy, she is considered one of the most popular British authors of historical adventure novels. As Philippa Carr she was u. a. the author of the Daughters of England series , which spans generations of English history. The series begins with the book Mystery in the Monastery in 1522, at the time of Henry VIII of England and the last (19th) book in this series is called Reunion in Cornwall and takes place at the time of the Second World War.

Honors

Works (selection)

Eleanor Burford

  • Daughter of Anna . 1941.
  • The married lover . 1942.
  • So the dreams depart . 1944.
  • Dear chance . 1947.
  • Two loves in her life . 1955.

Elbur Ford

  • Poison in Pimlico . Laurie Books, London 1950.
  • The flesh and the devil . Laurie Books, London 1950.
  • Bed disturbed . Laurie Books, London 1952.
  • Such bitter business . Heinemann, London 1953 (former title: Evil in the house ).
  • The love-child . Laurie Books, London 1950 (see also Philippa Carr).

Philippa Carr

Daughters of England cycle
Standalones

Victoria Holt

Kathleen Kellow

  • Danse macabre . Hale, London 1952.
  • Rooms at Mrs. Oliver's . Hale, London 1953.
  • Lilith . Hale, London 1954.
  • It started in Vauxhall Gardens . Hale, London 1955.
  • Call of the blood . Hale, London 1956.
  • Rochester, the mad earl . Hale, London 1957.
  • Milady Charlotte . Hale, London 1959.
  • The world's a stage. The love story of Peg Woffington and David Garrick . Hale, London 1960.

Anna Percival

  • Brides of Lanlory. A novel . Hale, London 1960.

Jean Plaidy

  • The Bloody Night of Paris (Queen Jezebel)
  • Kingdom of the Heart (Queen of this Realm)
  • Beyond the mountains
  • The scarlet coat
  • The strange princess
  • Crown of Love (Victoria Victorious)
  • In a dark time
  • Lilith
  • Mary, Queen of France
  • The woman from the dark (Melisande)
  • The King's Daughter (William's Wife)
  • The King's Secret Matter
  • The queen gives an account (a queen's confession)
  • The Queens (Murder Most Royal)
  • The Captive of Kensington Palace
  • The Queen and Lord M
  • Victoria and Her Husband - A Royal Marriage (Queen's Husband)
  • The Widow of Windsor
  • The Prisoner of the Throne (Myself my Enemy)
  • The beauty of the yard
  • Royal Rival Maria Stuart (Royal Road to Fotheringhay)
  • More than power and honor (Saint Thomas' Eve)
  • A king (rich) for England (Bastard King)
  • In the shadow of the crown
  • Royal throne and guillotine (later republished under Victoria Holt )
  • My Enemy the Queen (later republished under Victoria Holt )

Ellalice Tate

  • Defenders of the Faith . Hale, London 1971, ISBN 0-7091-1105-3 (reprint of the London 1960 edition).
  • The scarlett cloak . Chivers Press, Bath 1998, ISBN 0-7089-8980-2 (reprint of the London 1957 edition).
  • The Queen of diamonds . Charnwood Press, Leicester 1998, ISBN 0-7089-8980-2 (reprinted from London 1958 edition).
  • Madame du Barry . Hodder & Stoughton, London 1959.
  • This was a man . London 1961 (see also The Kind's adventurer )

literature

  • Diana Wallace: The woman's historical novel. British women writers 1900-2000 . Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke 2005, ISBN 1-4039-0322-0 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Source / evidence?
  2. ↑ This novel is not part of the series of the same name

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Burford, Eleanor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hibbert, Eleanor; Burford, Eleanor Alice (maiden name); Plaidy, Jean (pseudonym); Ford, Elbur (pseudonym); Kellow, Kathleen (pseudonym); Tate, Ellalice (pseudonym); Percival, Anna (pseudonym); Holt, Victoria (pseudonym); Carr, Philippa (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British writer
DATE OF BIRTH September 1, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH January 18, 1993
Place of death on a cruise in the Mediterranean at sea between Athens and Port Said, Egypt