Eleanor Hibbert; Wrote As Victoria Holt, Jean Plaidy

LONDON - The prolific novelist Eleanor Hibbert, who wrote under the pen names Victoria Holt and Jean Plaidy, has died while on her annual cruise, her agent said yesterday. She was in her 80s.

Mark Hamilton said Mrs. Hibbert died Monday while cruising between Athens and Port Said, Egypt. He did not give a cause of her death.

Mrs. Hibbert wrote historical novels under seven names. The most famous were Jean Plaidy, Victoria Holt and Philippa Carr, under which she wrote novels at the rate of about three each year.

She also wrote as Eleanor Burford, Ellalice Tate, Elbur Ford and Kathleen Kellow.

In 1991, her U.S. agent Julie Fallowfield estimated the sales of the Holt books alone - translated into 20 languages - at around 75 million copies.