Rebecca West (the pseudonym of Cicily Isabel Andrews, née Fairfield), socialist and feminist writer; author of, among others, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941), The Meaning of Treason (1947), and a short book on St Augustine, which I quite like. Fiercely anti-Communist in the 1950s, she always denied being sympathetic to Senator McCarthy. Born in London 21 December 1892, died, also in London, 15 March 1983.
‘Black Lamb and Grey Falcon’ is an absolutely astounding book. I’m halfway through it at the moment so I can’t draw definitive conclusions, but its near on the best book I’ve ever read for its scope, structure, language and fathomless human understanding. I only started reading it by accident, and I can’t undertsand why it doesn’t have a place in the literary canon.