Pamela Frankau (3 January 1908 - 9 June 1967) was a popular
British novelist. Her parents were Dorothea Frances Markham Drummond-Black and the novelist
Gilbert Frankau and her grandmother the satirist
Julia Frankau. Her uncle was the British radio comedian,
Ronald Frankau.
She had success as a writer from a young age. A relationship with the married
Humbert Wolfe ended only with his death in 1940. She then ceased to write for a long period. During the
Second World War, she worked for the
BBC, the Ministry of Food and with the
Auxiliary Territorial Service.
First published in 1954, A Wreath for the Enemy is perhaps her best loved novel and is still in print on both sides of the Atlantic (McPherson & Virago). In the novel the events of one night transform what appears at first to be a typical adolescent crisis into a prolonged struggle for self-definition on the part of the novel's teenage protagonist. In part autobiographical, Frankau clearly identified with her lead character who is presented as a writer in development.
Frankau became a
Roman Catholic convert in 1942, and spent much time in the
United States. She was married there, though only for a few years. She returned to England in 1953. A long
lesbian relationship with the theatre director
Margaret Webster began in the 1950s.[1]