H. F. M. Prescott

Hilda Frances Margaret Prescott,more usually known asH. F. M. Prescott(22 February 1896 – 5 May 1972), was an English writer, academic and historian. She was made a Fellow of theRoyal Society of Literature.Her best-known work is a novel,The Man on a Donkey,set in the 16th century.

Biography

She was born inCheshire,the daughter of Rev James Mulleneux Prescott and his wife Margaret (née Warburton). She was educated atWallaseyHigh School. She read Modern History atLady Margaret Hall,University of Oxford,where she received her firstM.A.Subsequently, she was awarded a secondM.A.atManchester University,where she did research under the direction ofThomas Frederick Tout,professor of Medieval and Modern History.

In 1943 Hilda Prescott was appointed tutor at St Mary's College,University of Durhamand then Vice-Principal from 1944 to 1948. She was awarded an honoraryD.Litt.by theUniversity of Durhamsome years later after publication of herThe Man on a Donkeyin 1952. In 1958 she was elected Jubilee Research Fellow atRoyal Holloway Collegein theUniversity of London,where she worked onThomas Wolsey.

H.F.M. Prescott is best known for her historical novelThe Man on a Donkey.Written in the form of a chronicle, the book tells the story of thePilgrimage of Grace,a popular rising in protest at theDissolution of the MonasteriesbyHenry VIII.The book is still in print, the latest edition being published in December 2016 by Apollo, London,ISBN9781784977719.

Her biography ofMary I of England,Mary Tudor(originally titledSpanish Tudor), which won theJames Tait Black Prizein 1941, remains one of the leading works on Mary I's troubled life and reign and is named by theEncyclopædia Britannicaas the best biography of the monarch.

H.F.M. Prescott wrote one thriller,Dead and Not Buried,and this was adapted forCBS'sClimax!television series under the screen title ofBury Me Laterin 1954.

As the daughter of a clergyman, H.F.M. Prescott was a committed member of theChurch of Englandand her wide-ranging interests included travel and the English countryside. H.F.M. Prescott was an early supporter ofAmnesty International,the human rights organisation, and of the Consumers' Association (Which?), and a member of theEnglish-Speaking Union.She was a woman of refined but simple tastes, and lived for many years quietly with her dogs in the small Oxfordshire town ofCharlbury.

She died on 5 May 1972.

Commemoration

A biography of Hilda Frances Margaret Prescott was published in theOxford Dictionary of National Biographyin December 2020.

Works

• The Unhurrying Chase(1925). Published by Constable & Co
• The Lost Fight(1928). Published by Constable & Co
• Son of Dust(1932). Published by Constable & Co
• Dead and Not Buried(1938)
• Spanish Tudor(1940). Published by Constable & Co
• The Man on a Donkey(1952). Published by Eyre & Spottiswoode
• Jerusalem Journey(1954). Published by Eyre & Spottiswoode
• Once to Sinai: The further pilgrimage of FriarFelix Fabri(1957). Published by Eyre & Spottiswoode

Translation

• Flamenca(1930). Published by Constable & Co (Attributed to Bernardet the Troubadour. Translated from the Thirteenth-Century Provençal by H F M Prescott)