Eleanor Alice Hibbert (née Burford; 1 September 1906 – 18 January 1993) was an English writer of historical romances. She was a prolific writer who published several books a year in different literary genres, each genre under a different pen name: Jean Plaidy for fictionalized history of European royalty and the three volumes of her history of the Spanish Inquisition, Victoria Holt for gothic romances, and Philippa Carr for a multi-generational family saga. She also wrote light romances, crime novels, murder mysteries and thrillers under pseudonyms Eleanor Burford, Elbur Ford, Kathleen Kellow, Anna Percival, and Ellalice Tate.
In 1989, the Romance Writers of America gave her the Golden Treasure award in recognition of her contributions to the romance genre. By the time of her death, she had written more than 200 books that sold more than 100 million copies and had been translated into 20 languages. She continues to be a widely borrowed author among British libraries.
Personal life
left|thumb|Map 1908, showing Eleanor Hibbert's birthplace [[Canning Town to the north of Royal Victoria Dock.]]
thumb|right|A memorial service was held for Eleanor Hibbert in March 1993 at [[St Peter's, Notting Hill Anglican church in Kensington Park Road, London.]]
thumb|left|Eleanor Hibbert died aboard the cruise ship [[MS Veronica|Sea Princess in 1993. (The ship is seen here in 1986 at Venice).]]
Hibbert was born Eleanor Alice Burford on 1 September 1906 at 20 Burke Street, Canning Town, now part of the London borough of Newham. She inherited a love of reading from her father, Joseph Burford, a dock labourer. Her mother was Alice Louise Burford, née Tate.
When she was quite young, ailing health forced her to be privately educated at home. At the age of 16 she went to a business college, where she studied shorthand, typewriting, and languages. She then worked for a jeweller in Hatton Garden where she weighed gems and typed. She also worked as a language interpreter in a café for French and German-speaking tourists. a wholesale leather merchant about twenty years older than herself, who shared her love of books and reading. During World War II, the Hibberts lived in a cottage in Cornwall that looked out over a bay called Plaidy Beach.
Between 1974 and 1978, Eleanor Hibbert bought a 13th-century manor house in Sandwich, Kent, that she named King's Lodging because she believed that it had served previously as lodging for English monarchs Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. Hibbert restored the house and furnished it opulently but soon found it too big for her taste and too far from London.
In 1985, Hibbert sold King's Lodging.
Hibbert spent her summers in her cottage near Plaidy Beach in Cornwall. She sailed to Sydney aboard the cruise ship Oronsay in 1970, and the Canberra in 1978.
thumb|[[Hampton Court, London. View of the Great Gatehouse from the outside.]]
Eleanor Hibbert grew up in London. She first discovered her fascination for the past when she visited Hampton Court in her teenage years. After her marriage, Hibbert achieved the financial independence she needed to realise her desire to write. London's monuments and royal personalities filled Hibbert's historical novels. She was also influenced by her regular visits to British historic homes and their architecture.