Genius of Winifred Holtby
‘THE English are not given to rhapsodising over ‘ people, yet I’ve heard the most reserved of them grow lyrical when they’ve spoken of Winifred Holtby. "When she came into a room it was as though the sun shone" said one, and another, "There was a radiance about her that was hardly of this world." Remarks that would have surprised Winifred, for she thought herself the most ordinary of mortals. A famous man said to Lady Rhondda one day, " Winifred Holtby is the most brilliant journalist in London. Why don’t you get her for your literary editor of ‘Time and Tide’?" But Winifred refused the position, for the reason that she couldn’t say "No" to people-a fatal drawback in an editor. She was considered by many to be one of the geniuses of her time, and while history must be a judge of genius, it is safe to predict that " Mandoa, Mandoa"’ will be read in the future as one of the real satires of this age. And, of course, there is "South Riding." As a public speaker, she could move an audience as few people that I’ve heard-not so much by eloquence as by a spiritual quality which lent sincerity and conviction to everything she said.-(Mrs. Vivienne Newson, "Some Remarkable Women I Have Met," 2YA, November 9.)
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 74, 22 November 1940, Page 5
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221Genius of Winifred Holtby New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 74, 22 November 1940, Page 5
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