Winifred Holtby (23 June 1898 – 29 September 1935) was an English novelist and journalist, now best known for her novel ''
South Riding'', which was posthumously published in 1936.
Biography
![Brittain Holtby Plaque](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Brittain_Holtby_Plaque.jpg)
Holtby was born to a prosperous farming family in the village of
Rudston
Rudston is a small village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated between Driffield and Bridlington approximately west of Bridlington, and lies on the B1253 road. The Gypsey Race (an intermittent stream) ru ...
,
East Riding of Yorkshire
The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to t ...
. Her father was David Holtby and her mother, Alice, was afterwards the first alderwoman on the
East Riding County Council
East Riding County Council (ERCC) was the county council of the East Riding of Yorkshire (excluding the county borough of Kingston upon Hull) from 1 April 1889 to 31 March 1974.
Chairmen
* 1889–1890: David Burton (resigned)
* 1890–1891: B ...
. Holtby was educated at home by a governess and then at
Queen Margaret's School in
Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to:
People
* Scarborough (surname)
* Earl of Scarbrough
Places Australia
* Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth
* Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong
* Scarborough, Queensland, su ...
. Although she passed the entrance exam for
Somerville College, Oxford
Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...
, in 1917, she chose to join the
Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) in early 1918 but soon after she arrived in France, the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
came to an end and she returned home.
During this period, Holtby met Harry Pearson, the only man who stimulated romantic feelings in her, due primarily to his tales of the suffering soldiers endured during the war.
In 1919, she returned to study at the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
where she met
Vera Brittain
Vera Mary Brittain (29 December 1893 – 29 March 1970) was an English Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse, writer, feminist, socialist and pacifist. Her best-selling 1933 memoir '' Testament of Youth'' recounted her experiences during the Fir ...
, a fellow student and later the author of ''
Testament of Youth
''Testament of Youth'' is the first instalment, covering 1900–1925, in the memoir of Vera Brittain (1893–1970). It was published in 1933. Brittain's memoir continues with ''Testament of Experience'', published in 1957, and encompassing th ...
'', with whom she maintained a lifelong friendship. Other literary contemporaries at Somerville College included
Hilda Reid,
Margaret Kennedy
Margaret Moore Kennedy (23 April 1896 – 31 July 1967) was an English novelist and playwright. Her most successful work, as a novel and as a play, was '' The Constant Nymph''. She was a productive writer and several of her works were filmed. T ...
and
Sylvia Thompson. After graduating from Oxford, in 1921, Winifred and Vera moved to
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, hoping to establish themselves as writers (the blue plaque at No. 82
Doughty Street
Doughty Street is a broad tree-lined street in the King's Cross district of the London Borough of Camden. The southern part is a continuation of the short John Street, which comes off Theobald's Road. The northern part crosses Guilford Street a ...
refers).
Holtby was, together with Brittain, an ardent feminist, socialist and pacifist. She lectured extensively for the
League of Nations Union The League of Nations Union (LNU) was an organization formed in October 1918 in Great Britain to promote international justice, collective security and a permanent peace between nations based upon the ideals of the League of Nations. The League of N ...
and was a member of the feminist
Six Point Group
The Six Point Group was a British feminist campaign group founded by Lady Rhondda in 1921 to press for changes in the law of the United Kingdom in six areas.
Aims
The six original specific aims were:
# Satisfactory legislation on child assault; ...
. She was active in the
Independent Labour Party
The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...
and was a staunch campaigner for the unionisation of black workers in South Africa, during which she had considerable contact with
Leonard Woolf
Leonard Sidney Woolf (; – ) was a British political theorist, author, publisher, and civil servant. He was married to author Virginia Woolf. As a member of the Labour Party and the Fabian Society, Woolf was an avid publisher of his own wo ...
.
In a 1926 article, Holtby wrote:
Personally, I am a feminist … because I dislike everything that feminism implies. … I want to be about the work in which my real interests lie … But while … injustice is done and opportunity denied to the great majority of women, I shall have to be a feminist.
After Brittain's marriage in 1925 to
George Catlin
George Catlin (July 26, 1796 – December 23, 1872) was an American adventurer, lawyer, painter, author, and traveler, who specialized in portraits of Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans in the Old West.
Traveling to the We ...
, Holtby shared her friend's homes in Nevern Place
Earls Court
Earl's Court is a district of Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London, bordering the rail tracks of the West London line and District line that separate it from the ancient borough of Fulham to the west, the ...
and subsequently at 19
Glebe Place
Glebe Place is a street in Chelsea, London. It runs roughly north to south from King's Road to the crossroads with Upper Cheyne Row, where it becomes Cheyne Row, leading down to Cheyne Walk and the River Thames. It also has a junction with B ...
, Chelsea; Catlin resented the arrangement and his wife's close friendship with Holtby,
who nevertheless became an adoptive aunt to Brittain's two children, John and Shirley (
Baroness Williams of Crosby
Shirley Vivian Teresa Brittain Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby, (' Catlin; 27 July 1930 – 12 April 2021) was a British politician and academic. Originally a Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP), she served in the Labour cabinet from ...
). Shirley describes her as being "tall – nearly 6ft – and slim, she was incandescent with the radiance of her short and concentrated life".
Holtby began to suffer from
high blood pressure
Hypertension (HTN or HT), also known as high blood pressure (HBP), is a long-term medical condition in which the blood pressure in the arteries is persistently elevated. High blood pressure usually does not cause symptoms. Long-term high bl ...
, recurrent headaches and bouts of
lassitude
Fatigue describes a state of tiredness that does not resolve with rest or sleep. In general usage, fatigue is synonymous with extreme tiredness or exhaustion that normally follows prolonged physical or mental activity. When it does not resolve ...
, and in 1931 she was diagnosed as suffering from
Bright's disease
Bright's disease is a historical classification of kidney diseases that are described in modern medicine as acute or chronic nephritis. It was characterized by swelling and the presence of albumin in the urine, and was frequently accompanied ...
. Her doctor gave her only two years to live. Aware of her impending death, Holtby put all her remaining energy into what became her most important book, ''
South Riding''. Winifred Holtby died on 29 September 1935, aged 37. She never married, though Harry Pearson proposed to her on her deathbed, possibly at the instigation of Vera Brittain.
Writings
Holtby's early novels – ''Anderby Wold'' (1923), ''The Crowded Street'' (1924) (re-published by
Persephone Books
''Persephone Books'' is an independent publisher based in Bath, England. Founded in 1999 by Nicola Beauman, Persephone Books reprints works largely by women writers of the late 19th and 20th century, though a few books by men are included. Th ...
in 2008, having been broadcast the previous year as a ten-part BBC Radio 4 dramatisation by Diana Griffiths)
and ''The Land of Green Ginger'' (1927) – met with moderate success.
Holtby's fame was derived mainly from her journalism: she wrote for more than 20 newspapers and magazines, including the feminist journal ''
Time and Tide'' (also serving on the board of directors) and the ''
Manchester Guardian'' newspaper. She also wrote a regular weekly column for the trade union magazine ''The Schoolmistress''. Her books during this period included two novels, ''Poor Caroline'' (1931), ''Mandoa! Mandoa!'' (1933), a critical study of
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device.
Woolf was born i ...
(1932) and a volume of short stories, ''Truth is Not Sober'' (1934).
As well as her journalism, Holtby wrote 14 books, including six novels; two volumes of short stories; the first critical study of Virginia Woolf (1932) and ''Women and a changing civilization'' (1934), a feminist survey with opinions that are still relevant.
She dedicated the latter book to composer
Dame Ethel Smyth
Dame Ethel Mary Smyth (; 22 April 18588 May 1944) was an English composer and a member of the women's suffrage movement. Her compositions include songs, works for piano, chamber music, orchestral works, choral works and operas.
Smyth tended t ...
and actress and writer
Cicely Hamiltion, both strong
suffragist
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...
s who "did more than write "
The March of the Women
"The March of the Women" is a song composed by Ethel Smyth in 1910, to words by Cicely Hamilton. It became the official anthem of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and more widely the anthem of the women's suffrage movement throughou ...
", the song composed in 1910 for the
Women's Social and Political Union
The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom from 1903 to 1918. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership an ...
. She also wrote poetry, including poems about Vera Brittain's dead brother,
Edward
Edward is an English given name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”.
History
The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-Sa ...
.
In ''Women and a changing civilisation'' Holtby linked the 1930s reaction against feminism to a broader "revolt against reason which has affected the intellectual life of the entire Western World". Holtby contextualized the rise of the Nazis, and the Western turn to the political Right in general, as a reaction to the broader upheavals of war and depression: "Just after the
irst World
An infrared search and track (IRST) system (sometimes known as infrared sighting and tracking) is a method for detecting and tracking objects which give off infrared radiation, such as the infrared signatures of jet aircraft and helicopters.
IR ...
war, society was infected by a rush of idealism to the head. Democracy and reason, equality and co-operation were acclaimed as uncontested virtues. In the new constitutions of Europe and America were incorporated splendid statements about the freedom of opinion, equality of the sexes, accessibility of education. We were about to build a brave new world upon the ruins of catastrophe ... About 1926, after the
General Strike
A general strike refers to a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large co ...
in England and its failure, after the entry of Germany into the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
and the delay by the Powers in making good their promises, the slump in idealism began to set in. Reason, democracy, the effort of the individual human will, liberty and equality were at a discount." Holtby noted that a former politician had explained the apathy of young women with reference to their experience of "huge impersonal events - the War, the Boom, the Slump. News is reported daily of immense catastrophes over which they can have no control, the Japanese and Indian earthquakes, Chinese famine, African drought ... The individual will seems unimportant, the individual personality is dwarfed, by happenings on so large a scale ... This is the slump complex - this narrowing of ambition, this closing-in alike of ideas and opportunities. Somewhere, a spring of vitality and hope has failed." Holtby perceived feminism as necessarily tied to Enlightenment rationality, progress, and
social engineering: "The attempt to create communities where men and women alike share the full stature of humanity is an attempt to do something which has not been done before, and which can only be achieved under certain conditions. And one of these is the acceptance of reason as a guide in human conduct. If we choose an anti-rational philosophy, in this quest, at least, we are defeated. The enemies of reason are inevitably the opponents of 'equal rights.'"
Holtby is best remembered for her novel ''South Riding'', edited by Vera Brittain and published posthumously in March 1936, which received high praise from the critics. The book won the
James Tait Black Memorial Prize
The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Uni ...
for 1936
and has never been out of print. ''
The Feminist Companion to Literature in English
''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present'' is a biographical dictionary about women writers.
''Companion'' was edited by Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements, and Isobel Grundy. It was ...
'' claims that, like all Holtby's other novels, it is "staunchly feminist in its use of a strong woman as the central protagonist." In 1938, it was made into a
film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
directed by
Victor Saville
Victor Saville (25 September 1895 – 8 May 1979) was an English film director, producer, and screenwriter. He directed 39 films between 1927 and 1954. He also produced 36 films between 1923 and 1962.
Biography
Saville produced his first f ...
;
in 1974 it was adapted by
Stan Barstow
Stanley Barstow FRSL (28 June 1928 – 1 August 2011) was an English novelist.
Biography
Barstow was born in Horbury, near Wakefield in the West Riding of Yorkshire. His father was a coal miner and he attended Ossett Grammar School. He work ...
for
Yorkshire Television
ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...
and in 2011,
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...
produced a
three-part dramatisation by
Andrew Davies. There have also been several radio adaptations, the most recent for
BBC Radio Four
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...
in 2005.
Vera Brittain
Vera Mary Brittain (29 December 1893 – 29 March 1970) was an English Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse, writer, feminist, socialist and pacifist. Her best-selling 1933 memoir '' Testament of Youth'' recounted her experiences during the Fir ...
wrote about her friendship with Holtby in her book ''Testament of Friendship'' (1940) and in 1960 published a censored edition of their correspondence. Their letters, along with many of Holtby's other papers, were donated in 1960 to
Hull Central Library in Yorkshire and are now held at the
Hull History Centre
The Hull History Centre is an archive and local studies library in Hull, England, that houses the combined collections of both the Hull City Council and Hull University archives and local studies resources. This collaboration between Hull Ci ...
. Other papers are in
Bridlington
Bridlington is a coastal town and a civil parish on the Holderness Coast of the North Sea in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is about north of Hull and east of York. The Gypsey Race enters the North Sea at its harbour. The 2011 ...
library in Yorkshire, in
McMaster University
McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood and Westdale, adjacent to the Royal Botanical Ga ...
Library in Canada and in the
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...
library in South Africa. A biography of Holtby by Marion Shaw, ''The Clear Stream'', was published in 1999 and draws on a broad range of sources.
Holtby was buried in All Saints' churchyard in
Rudston
Rudston is a small village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated between Driffield and Bridlington approximately west of Bridlington, and lies on the B1253 road. The Gypsey Race (an intermittent stream) ru ...
, East
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...
, just yards from the house in which she was born. Her epitaph is "God give me work till my life shall end and life till my work is done".
All her novels, together with a collection of short stories and a collection of her journalism, were reprinted by
Virago
A virago is a woman who demonstrates abundant masculine virtues. The word comes from the Latin word ''virāgō'' ( genitive virāginis) meaning vigorous' from ''vir'' meaning "man" or "man-like" (cf. virile and virtue) to which the suffix ''-ā ...
in the Virago Modern Classics series in the 1980s.
Legacy
In 1967, the
Royal Society of Literature
The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...
instituted the
Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize for the best regional novel of the year.
In 2003 the award was incorporated into the
Ondaatje Prize
The Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize is an annual literary award given by the Royal Society of Literature. The £10,000 award is for a work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry that evokes the "spirit of a place", and is written by someon ...
.
On her death, Holtby left a small legacy and her own collection of books to a library in the South African township of
Soweto
Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...
, which was opened in December 1940. It was named the Winifred Holtby Memorial Library. It was the first library to be built in Africa specifically for non-Europeans.
Bibliography
Novels
* ''Anderby Wold'' (1923)
* ''The Crowded Street'' (1924)
* ''The Land of Green Ginger'' (1927)
* ''Poor Caroline'' (1931)
* ''Mandoa! Mandoa!'' (1933)
* ''The Astonishing Island'' (1933)
* ''South Riding'' (1936; published posthumously)
Poetry
* My ''Garden'' (1911)
* ''The Frozen Earth'' (1935)
Other fiction
* ''Truth is Not Sober and Other Stories'' (1934), collection of short stories
* ''Take Back Your Freedom'' (1939; published posthumously), play
* ''Remember Remember'' (1999; published posthumously), collection of short stories
Non-fiction
* ''A New Voter's Guide to Party Programmes'' (1929)
* ''Virginia Woolf: a Critical Memoir'' (1932)
* ''Women and a changing civilisation'' (1934)
* ''Letters to a Friend'' (1937; published posthumously)
See also
*
Winifred Holtby Academy
Winifred Holtby Academy (previously Bransholme High School, Winifred Holtby School, Winifred Holtby Technology College) is a coeducational secondary school located in the Bransholme area of Kingston upon Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, ...
*
List of Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize award winners
References
* An illustrated History of Johannesburg, Anna H. Smith, ed. 1956
Further reading
* Paul Berry and Mark Bostridge, ''Vera Brittain: A Life'', Chatto & Windus 1995; Virago, 2001.
* Vera Brittain, ''Testament of Friendship'', Macmillan, 1940, and Virago Modern Classics, 2012.
* Marion Shaw, ''The Clear Stream: a life of Winifred Holtby'', Virago, 1999.
External links
*
*
Holtby biography in the Literary Encyclopedia website*
*
* Mark Bostridge
"Winifred Holtby's South Riding" ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', 19 February 2011.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holtby, Winifred
1898 births
1935 deaths
20th-century English women writers
20th-century English novelists
Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford
British suffragists
Deaths from nephritis
Journalists from Yorkshire
English women novelists
British feminist writers
James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients
People educated at Queen Margaret's School, York
People from Bridlington
English socialist feminists
The Guardian journalists