Bella Sidney Woolf

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Bella Sidney Woolf OBE (* December 1877 in London , England , † December 1960 ) was a British author . She was the sister of Leonard Woolf and was married to Thomas Southorn in her second marriage . She is also known as Bella Sidney Woolf Southorn , Mrs. WT Southorn , Mrs. HR Lock, and Lady Southorn .

Life

Woolf was one of ten siblings of her parents Marie (nee de Jongh) and Solomon Rees Sydney, a Jewish barrister who died in 1892.

At the end of 1907 she traveled to Sri Lanka (then Ceylon ) to visit her brother Leonard Woolf, who was stationed there with the Ceylon Civil Service in Kandy . In the months that followed, she met Robert Heath Lock , Deputy Director of the Royal Botanical Garden of Sri Lanka . They either married at that time or, more likely, later in 1910. In August 1908, she and her brother returned to England, who shortly thereafter accepted a promotion to the Hambantota law enforcement agent .

In 1921, at the age of 44, she married for the second time and became the wife of Thomas Southorn , whom she had already met through her brother in Sri Lanka. From this time on she sometimes used the name Bella Woolf Southorn , sometimes Bella Sidney Southorn . However, her books continued to appear under her original name, Bella Sidney Woolf .

She enjoyed her life to the fullest as the wife of a Colonial Civil Service member and was fascinated by the many different places she could live. This also influenced her books, which came from both the field of fiction and travel guides.

During her time in Hong Kong , she was a non-profit organization and was among other things agent of the Hong Kong Girl Guides Association from 1926 to 1936 . In 1935 she was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

Activity as an author

Woolf wrote both fictional and non-fictional texts. She brought her experience to both of them, which she was able to gain due to her husband's many transfers to different British colonies. This resulted in stories and novels, but also travel guides about local conditions, customs and inhabitants. She also wrote about current events.

Her work How To See Ceylon was published in 1914 and contained her experience of trips by car "along the sunny streets of Ceylon" with her husband. It is now considered the first paperback travel guide to the island. Three more editions followed in 1922, 1924 and 1929. While Tom was governor of The Gambia in 1936 , she wrote a detailed account of the history of the small West African territory.

Their approach was very liberal for the time. She saw value in the cultures that comprised the British Empire and was concerned about the erosion she saw in them. She wrote about Ceylon: "It is a pity that so many indigenous people adopt the British style of clothing and overlook the fact that it destroys all their individuality and their oriental grace."

Woolf also wrote children's books, all of which were also based on her overseas experience. The Twins in Ceylon and its sequels were particularly popular .

Major publications

  • Bella Sidney Woolf: Jerry and Joe. A tale of the two jubilees . With illustrations by HC Preston Macgoun. Oliphant & Co., Edinburgh, London 1897 (English).
  • Bella Sidney Woolf: All in a castle fair . Cassell & Co., London, New York 1900 (English).
  • Bella Sidney Woolf, Ewan Frances: Dear sweet Anne . or, The mysterious veres. Collins' Clear-Type Press, London, Glasgow (English).
  • Bella Sidney Woolf, Rosa C. Petherick: Golden house . Thomas Nelson and Sons, London (English, between 1920? And 1924).
  • Bella Sidney Woolf: The twins in Ceylon . Duckworth, London 1909 (English, dto. Follow-up volume More about the twins in Ceylon [London 1911]).
  • Bella Sidney Woolf: How to see Ceylon . Times of Ceylon Co., Fort Colombo 1929 (English, 1st edition 1914, ..., 4th edition 1929).
  • Bella Sidney Woolf: Right against might . the great war of 1914. W. Heffer, Cambridge 1914 (English, partial reprint from the Walsall observer and the South Staffordshire chronicle ).
  • Bella Sidney Woolf: Eastern Star-Dust . The Times of Ceylon Company, Ltd., Colombo 1922 (English).
  • Bella Sidney Woolf, PB Hickling: The Strange Little Girl . Thomas Nelson and Sons, London 1922 (English).
  • Bella Sidney Woolf: Little Miss Prue . In: Velhagen & Klasings collection of French and English school editions . English authors. tape 131 . Velhagen & Klasing, Bielefeld, Leipzig 1925 (English original London 1907.).
  • Bella Sidney Woolf: Chips of China . Kelly & Walsh, Hong Kong 1930 (English).
  • Bella Sidney Woolf: From Groves of Palm . W. Heffer, Cambridge 1924 (English).
  • RH lock; L. Doncaster; Bella Sidney Woolf: Recent progress in the study of variation, heredity and evolution . Biographical note by Bella Sidney Woolf (Mrs. RH Lock). London 1916 (English, new edition of Pranava Books 2009).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ WorldCat Identities. Retrieved August 23, 2011 .
  2. ↑ a b Infolanka: How To See Ceylon. By Bella Sidney Woolf. In: Saturday Magazine. Retrieved August 25, 2011 .
  3. ↑ Jason Wordie: Out and About . Bella Southorn's stories reflect the life she loved as the wife of a colonial civil servant. In: SCMP Post Magazine . April 24, 2011.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Woolf, Bella Sidney
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Woolf Southorn, Bella Sidney; Southorn, Mrs. WT; Lock, Mrs. HR; Lady Southorn
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English author, OBE
DATE OF BIRTH December 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH December 1960