Anna Percival

Eleanor Alice Burford was born on 1 September 1906 in Kensington, London, England. She married ta leather merchant, George Percival Hibber, who shared her love of books and reading. Eleanor Burford was one of the preeminent English authors of historical fiction for most of the twentieth century. She used eight pennames during her career and many of her readers under one penname never suspected her other identities. In 1941, she began signing her novels with her maiden name: Eleanor Burford, later she created her first and most prolific pseudonym: Jean Plaidy. In the 1950's she used the pseudonyms: Elbur Ford, Kathleen Kellow and Ellalice Tate. In 1960, she created the pseudonyms: Anna Percival and the popular Victoria Holt. In 1972, she created her last pseudonym Philippa Carr. (Some of her novels were reedited as different pseudonyms). She died on January 18, 1993 at sea, somewhere between Greece and Port Said, Egypt. By the time of her death, she sold 56 millon copies as Victoria Holt, 14 as Jean Plaidy and, 3 as Phillipa Carr.