Rebecca West author page

Rebecca West biography

Rebecca West (1892–1983), born Cicely Isabel Fairfield, was a British novelist, journalist and critic active across the twentieth century. Beginning her career in the suffrage press, she became known for incisive literary criticism and political reportage alongside fiction.

Her debut novel, The Return of the Soldier (1918), examined memory and trauma in the aftermath of the First World War. Subsequent fiction included The Judge (1922), Harriet Hume (1929) and the semi-autobiographical sequence beginning with The Fountain Overflows (1956), later followed by This Real Night and Cousin Rosamund.

West’s nonfiction ranges from literary essays to major works of history and travel. Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941), her study of Yugoslavia, is widely regarded as her masterpiece of reportage, while The Meaning of Treason (1947) and its revised edition, The New Meaning of Treason (1964), gathered her writings on trials for treason and war crimes. She also published the essay collection A Train of Powder (1955).

Rebecca West was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1959.