Winifred Holtby was an English novelist, playwright and short story writer. She is best known for her novel The Road from Coorain, which was made into a film of the same name. Winifred Holtby was born in London, England. After an unhappy childhood, Holtby attended Oxford University, where she founded the Oxford Dramatic Society
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She went on to work as a journalist and was an editor at both The Evening News and The Daily Telegraph before becoming a full-time writer in 1925. A collection of her short stories (Wife, Mother and Child) was published in 1924. Her first novel, A Shilling for Candles (1928), drew on her experience as a newspaper journalist for its depiction of an isolated community of women living in the British countryside.
Her second novel, The Dark Island (1930), dealt with the plight of immigrant women in London's East End. A collection of short stories appeared in 1932 under the title Wife, Mother and Child.