| Rachel Trickett | |
| Birth Date: | 20 December 1923 |
| Death Place: | Oxford, England |
| Known For: | non-fiction writer |
| Honours: | Warton Lecture (1971)[1] |
| Occupation: | academic |
| Nationality: | British |
Rachel Trickett (20 December 1923 - 24 June 1999) was an English novelist, non‑fiction writer, literary scholar, and a prominent British academic; she served as Principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford, for nearly twenty years, between 1973 and 1991.
Trickett was educated at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She became a lecturer in English at the University of Hull in 1946 and in 1954 she returned to Oxford as a fellow and tutor at St Hugh's College.
As Principal of St. Hugh's College, Trickett often showed a side of gaiety: on her instruction, the chapel at the college was redecorated in 18th-century colours.
Her friend Laurence Whistler designed the college's beautiful gilded wrought iron Swan gates, which can now be found by the Principal's house on Canterbury Road.[2]
Trickett was the author of the novel The Return Home (London, Constable & Co., 1952), and of The Course of Love (London, Constable & Co., 1954). Her The Honest Muse: A Study in Augustan Verse was published by Clarendon Press, Oxford, in 1967.
It is said that "she had a wicked eye for the conceit of academics, their insularity and devious manipulations",[3] an attitude which made her a soul‑mate of Erich Heller.
The Rachel Trickett Building at St. Hugh's College is named in her honour.