Bella Woolf

Bella Sidney Woolf OBE (1877–1960) was an English author. Her writings predominantly draw on her experience living overseas in British colonies. Through her brother Leonard Woolf, she is the sister-in-law of author Virginia Woolf.

Early life Woolf was born in London, the eldest (or 2nd eldest) of ten children to Marie (née de Jongh) and the Jewish barrister Solomon Rees Sydney Woolf. Her father died in 1892.

At the end of 1907, she travelled to Ceylon (today known as Sri Lanka) to visit her brother, Leonard Woolf, then a junior civil servant stationed in Kandy.

First marriage

In the following months she met Robert Heath Lock, Assistant Director of the Peradeniya Botanical Gardens. They were married in 1910.

Regarding Ceylon, Woolf said that "it is unfortunate that so many natives are adopting English dress, blind to the fact that it destroys all their individuality and Oriental grace."

Published in 1914, Woolf's propagandist work Right Against Might: The Great War of 1914 documents the first year of World War I in support of British Forces and the League of the Empire.

Much of Woolf's fictional writing was short stories drawn from her life in the colonies and her marriage to Lock and Southorn, both colonial civil servants.

Woolf also wrote several children's books, all drawing on her various overseas experiences; The Twins in Ceylon and its sequels were very popular.

Works Jerry & Joe, A Tale of Two Jubilees (Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier, Edinburgh, 1897) All in a Castle Fair (Cassell, New York, 1900) Dear Sweet Anne or The Mysterious Veres (Collins, probably 1900–1910) Little Miss Prue (Cassell, London, 1907) Golden House (Duckworth and Co., c1910)^ The Twins in Ceylon (Duckworth and Co., London, 1909, 1913) and sequels How To See Ceylon (1st Ed: Visidunu Prakashakayo, 1914; 2nd Ed: Times of Ceylon Co, 1922; 4th Ed: Times of Ceylon Co, 1929) Right against might; the great war of 1914 (Cambridge, W. Heffer, 1914) (Reprinted: Pranava Books, 2009) Eastern Star-Dust (Times of Ceylon, Colombo, 1922) The Strange Little Girl (Thomas Nelson and Sons, London c1923)^ Chips of China (Kelly and Walsh Ltd, Shanghai, 1930) From Groves of Palm (W. Heffer & Sons Ltd, Cambridge, 1925)^^ Bits of Old China and Under the Mosquito Curtain

^ sometimes credited to 'Woolf, Bella Sidney (Mrs. R. H. Lock)' ^^ credited to 'Woolf, Bella Sidney (Mrs. W. T. Southorn)'

Co-authored Recent Progress in the Study of Variation, Heredity, and Evolution, (Robert Heath Lock, Leonard Doncaster, Bella Sidney Woolf) (Pranava Books, 1916. Reprinted Pranava Books, 2009) Little Folks – The Magazine for Boys and Girls Volume 84 , Geoffrey H. White. Eveline M. Williams. D. H. Parry. Nancy M. Hayes. Walter Copeland. Bella Sidney Woolf. Squirrel. et al. (Cassell and Co. Ltd, London, 1916)