Honor Tracy

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Honor Tracy is the pseudonym of Lilbush Wingfield, ( October 19, 1913 – June 13, 1989), who was a British writer, born at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk.

She was attached to the British Ministry of Information during World War II, as a Japanese specialist. She worked for the Observer newspaper as a columnist and she was a long-time foreign correspondent, but Tracy is best known as a travel writer. Her novels satirize British-Irish relations and Ireland itself with wit and occasionally bitterness. Her best-known novels are The Straight and Narrow Path (1956), The Quiet End of Evening (1972), and The Ballad of Castle Reef (1979). Her best-known travel book is Winter in Castille (1974).

She settled in Achill Island, Co. Mayo, Ireland and died in 1989.

[edit] Betjeman hoax

A N Wilson's biography of Sir John Betjeman, published August 2006, included a letter to Tracy which purported to be by Betjeman detailing a previously unknown love affair. They had worked together at the Admiralty during the war. The letter turned out to be a hoax on Wilson, containing an acrostic spelling out an insulting message to him.[1]

[edit] Novels

Her novels include

  • The Straight and Narrow Path (London, Methuen / New York, Random House 1956);
  • A Number of Things (Methuen / Random House, 1960);
  • A Season of Mists (Methuen / Random House, 1961);
  • The First Day of Friday (Methuen / Random House, 1963);
  • Men at Work (Methuen / Random House, 1967);
  • The Beauty of the World (Methuen / Random House, 1967);
  • Settled in Chambers (Methuen / Random House 1968);
  • Butterflies of the Province (New York, Random House /London, Eyre Methuen, 1970);
  • The Quiet End of Evening ( Random House / Eyre Methuen, 1972).

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ Brooks, Richard. "Betjeman biographer confesses to literary hoax", The Sunday Times, 2006-09-03. Retrieved on 2006-09-25.