Hell Hath No Fury…

…Like a biographer scorned. So the biographer Bevis Hillier was the person who wrote the fake Betjeman letter. He did it as an act of revenge on his rival, A. N. Wilson, who encroached on his territory by writing a biography of Betjeman as well, and who also disparaged Hillier’s work in a scathing review.

 

Wilson failed to appreciate that the fake love letter supposedly penned by Betjeman was sent to him by "Eve de Harben" (an anagram of "ever been had"), and that the first letters of each line in the letter spelt out "A. N. Wilson is a shit". Not only did he fail to spot it, but he trumpeted the discovery of a hitherto unknown love letter in his biography.

 

Game, set and match to Hillier, I think.