author
Francis Prevost
1862–1949
A soldier-turned-journalist who wrote as Francis Prevost, he moved between poetry, fiction, war reporting, and even psychical research. His work carries the energy of a writer who had seen public life, conflict, and the changing moods of the late Victorian and early 20th-century world.
1 Audiobook
The Plague of the Heart
by Francis Prevost
About the author
Born Harry Francis Prevost Battersby in 1862, he published under the name Francis Prevost and is also known as H. F. P. Battersby. He was educated at Westminster and later at Woolwich and Sandhurst, but left the army and built a career in journalism and writing.
Prevost worked across several forms, including poetry, novels, and reporting. Reference sources describe him as a journalist, poet, novelist, translator, and psychical researcher, and archival records note that he served as a war correspondent for The Morning Post and also reported on the Prince of Wales's tour of India in 1905–1906.
That unusually wide range of interests helps explain the mix of subjects attached to his name today. He belongs to a generation of writers who were not confined to one shelf: part literary author, part man of letters, and part observer of imperial and military affairs. He died in 1949.