Honor Tracy
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.[1]
Tracy joined the British Women's Auxiliary Air Force from 1939 to 1941, working in the intelligence departement, then she was attached to the British Ministry of Information during the Second World War, from 1941 to 1945, as a Japanese specialist. She worked for The Observer newspaper as a columnist and as a long-time foreign correspondent. She wrote also for The Sunday Times and for the British Broadcasting Corporation. 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 (1973).
She settled in Achill Island, Co. Mayo, Ireland and died in 1989 in Oxford, England.[1]
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[edit] Betjeman hoax
A N Wilson's biography of Sir John Betjeman, published in 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.[2]
[edit] Work
[edit] Travel works
Her travel works include:
- Kakemono: A Sketchbook of Postwar Japan (1950)
- Spanish Leaves (1964)
- Winter in Castile (1973)
- The Heart of England (1983)
[edit] Novels
Tracy's novels include:
- The Deserters (1954)
- The Straight and Narrow Path (London, Methuen / New York, Random House 1956)
- Silk Hats and No Breakfast (Random House, 1957)
- The Prospects Are Pleasing (1958)
- 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)
- The Ballad of Castle Reef (1979)
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ a b Flint, Peter B. (June 16, 1989). "Honor Tracy, Travel Writer, Is Dead at 75 - Obituary - NYTimes.com". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE0DD1E3CF935A25755C0A96F948260. Retrieved 2011-01-17.
- ^ Brooks, Richard (2006-09-03). "Betjeman biographer confesses to literary hoax". London: The Sunday Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2340567,00.html. Retrieved 2006-09-25.
- Honor (Lilbush Wingfield) Tracy Biography at Dictionary of Literary Biography, quoted at Bookrags.com Accessed June 2007
- Honor Tracy entry at the Princess Grace Irish Library, Monaco. Accessed June 2007
