Kathleen Hewitt
Kathleen Hewitt (b. Darjeeling, 11 November 1893 – d. London, 12 June 1980) was a British author and playwright. She wrote more than 20 novels during her lifetime. She also wrote at least one novel under the pseudonym Dorothea Martin,[1] and edited the writing of West African journalist Marjorie Mensah.[2] Hewitt mainly wrote mystery and thriller novels, with a style comparable to Agatha Christie. She was married to the marine painter Neville Sotheby Pitcher, whom she later divorced. Hewitt was also a frequent contributor to Lilliput magazine. Her plays included The Man Who Meant Well and African Shadows.
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Kathleen Hewitt was part of the 1930s artistic set in London that included Meum Stewart, Jacob Epstein and Dylan Thomas. She was a friend of the poet Roy Campbell and his wife Mary Campbell, a painter, and dedicated her book Decoration to them.[3] She lived at various times in South Africa and Nigeria, in Reading, Berks, and Brighton, Sussex. In London she lived in the Edgware Road and at 2 Coningsby Road, South Ealing.
Books
- Mardi (1932)
- A Pattern In Yellow (1932)
- Fetish (1933)
- Us Women: Extracts from the Writings of Marjorie Mensah (1933), ed. Kathleen Hewitt
- Black Sunshine (1933), under the name Dorothea Martin
- Strange Salvation (1934)
- Comedian (1934)
- Decoration (1935), a modern satire
- Return To The River (1936)
- Go Find A Shadow (1937)
- The House By The Canal (1938)
- The Golden Milestone (1939)
- No Time To Play (1939)
- Stand-in For Danger (1940)
- Lady Gone Astray (1941)
- The Mice Are Not Amused (1942)
- Plenty Under The Counter (1943). Re-published by the Imperial War Museum, 2019[4]
- The Only Paradise (1945), an autobiography
- Thanks For The Apple (1947)
- Murder In The Ballroom (1948)
- Still The World Is Young (1951)
- Three Rainbows (1952)
- One Man's Woman (1954)
- Harmony In Autumn (1955)
Murder In The Ballroom has been adapted for the stage by Eddie Lewisohn.
References
- Carty, T. J., "HEWITT, Kathleen Douglas", A Dictionary of Literary Pseudonyms in the English Language, Routledge, 2015, p. 505.
- Newell, Stephanie (2002). Literary Culture in Colonial Ghana. UK: Manchester University Press. pp. 124–25. ISBN 0-7190-6274-8.
- Connolly, Cressida (2004). The Rare and the Beautiful. Great Britain: Fourth Estate. p. 117. ISBN 1-84115-633-7.
- Hewitt, Kathleen (2019). Plenty Under The Counter Imperial War Museum (IWM Wartime Classics) ISBN 978-1912423095.