author
Rebecca West
1892–1983
A fearless critic and novelist with a razor-sharp mind, she brought the same intensity to fiction, politics, and travel writing. Best known today for Black Lamb and Grey Falcon and her reporting on the Nuremberg trials, she was one of the great literary journalists of the 20th century.
3 Audiobooks
About the author
Born in London in 1892 as Cecily Isabel Fairfield, she adopted the pen name Rebecca West after a character in Henrik Ibsen's Rosmersholm. She worked as a journalist, novelist, literary critic, and travel writer, building a reputation for clear thinking, independence, and bold opinions.
Her work ranged widely, from novels such as The Return of the Soldier to criticism and political writing. She is especially remembered for Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, her large, vivid account of Yugoslavia, and for her reporting on the Nuremberg trials after World War II. Encyclopaedia Britannica describes her as a British journalist, novelist, and critic who was perhaps best known for those trial reports.
West died in London in 1983. Her writing still stands out for its energy, intelligence, and willingness to tackle difficult moral and political questions without losing sight of individual lives.