Flora Annie Steel (2 April 1847 – 12 April 1929) was a writer who lived in British India for 22 years. She was noted especially for books set in the Indian sub-continent or connected with it. Her novel '' On the Face of the Waters'' (1896) describes incidents in the

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Personal life

She was born Flora Annie Webster at Sudbury Priory, Sudbury, Middlesex, the sixth child of George Webster. Her mother, Isabella MacCallum, was an heiress. In 1867 she married Henry William Steel, a member of the Indian Civil Service, and they lived in India until 1889, chiefly in the Punjab, with which most of her books are connected. She grew deeply interested in native Indian life and began to urge educational reforms on the government of India. Mrs Steel herself became an Inspectress of Government and Aided Schools in the Punjab and also worked with John Lockwood Kipling, Rudyard Kipling's father, fostering Indian arts and crafts. When her husband's health was weak, Flora Annie Steel took over some of his responsibilities. She died at her daughter's house in

Minchinhampton Minchinhampton is an ancient Cotswolds market town in the Stroud District in Gloucestershire, South West England. The town is located on a hilltop, south-east of Stroud. The common offers wide views over the Severn Estuary into Wales and furth ...

, Gloucestershire on 12 April 1929. Her biographers include

Violet Powell Lady Violet Georgiana Powell (''née'' Pakenham; 13 March 1912 – 12 January 2002) was a British writer and critic. Her husband was the author Anthony Powell. Life and career Lady Violet was the third daughter of Thomas Pakenham, 5th Earl ...

and Daya Patwardhan.

Writing

Flora was interested in relating to all classes of Indian society. The birth of her daughter gave her a chance to interact with local women and learn their language. She encouraged the production of local handicrafts and collected folk-tales, a collection of which she published in 1894. Her interest in schools and the education of women gave her insight into native life and character. A year before leaving India, she co-authored and published '' The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook'', which gave detailed directions to European women on all aspects of household management in India. In 1889 the family moved back to Britain, and she continued her writing there. Some of her best work, according to the 1911 ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', is contained in two collections of her short stories, ''From the Five Rivers'' and ''Tales of the Punjab''. She also wrote a popular history of India. John F. Riddick describes Steel's ''The Hosts of the Lord'' as one of the "three significant works" produced by Anglo-Indian writers on Indian missionaries, along with ''The Old Missionary'' (1895) by William Wilson Hunter and ''Idolatry'' (1909) by Alice Perrin. Among her other literary associates in India was Bithia Mary Croker. Douglas Sladen: "Lady Authors", in: ''Twenty Years of My Life'' (London: Constable, 1915), p. 120 ff.

Bibliography

STEEL(1894) Tales of the Punjab (15628450798)

References

External links

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Play 'Grand-dad' by Steel on Great War Theatre
{{DEFAULTSORT:Steel, Flora Annie 1847 births 1929 deaths Writers from Wembley English short story writers 19th-century English novelists 20th-century English novelists 19th-century English historians English tax resisters Europeans in India Feminism in India 19th-century British short story writers 20th-century British short story writers 19th-century British women writers 20th-century British women writers British women historians 20th-century English historians