Winifred Holtby

Winifred Holtby

Winifred Holtby (Rudston, June 23, 1898 - London, September 29, 1935) was especially famous for being a socialist journalist, pacifist and militant of the feminist group Six Point Group. She was also known for her novel South Riding and for her critical study of Virginia Woolf, which remained unpublished in Spanish until our publication.

In 1919 she returned to study at Oxford University from France, where she had resided since the beginning of the First World War. There she met Vera Brittain, later the author of Testament of Youth, with whom she was friends with her for the rest of her life.

Holtby's fame derived primarily from her work as a journalist. Very prolific, over the next decade and a half she wrote for more than twenty newspapers and magazines, including the feminist Time and Tide and the Manchester Guardian. She wrote a weekly column for the union magazine The Schoolmistress.

Her books at this time included two novels, Poor Caroline (1931) and Mandoa! Send to! (1933), and a volume of short stories, Truth is Not Sober (1934).

Holtby began to suffer from serious physical problems. In 1931 she was diagnosed with Bright's disease. She dedicated the last years of her life to writing her novel South Riding of hers. She died in 1935, at the age of 37.