Flora Annie Steel (2 April 1847 – 12 April 1929) was a writer who lived in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

for 22 years. She was noted especially for books set in the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

or connected with it. Her novel '' On the Face of the Waters'' (1896) describes incidents in the

Indian Mutiny The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the form ...

Personal life

She was born Flora Annie Webster at Sudbury Priory, Sudbury, Middlesex, the third child of George Webster. Her mother, Isabella MacCallum, was an heiress. In 1867 she married Henry William Steel, a member of the

Indian Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British Raj, British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 3 ...

, and they lived in India until 1889, chiefly in the

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

, with which most of her books are connected. She grew deeply interested in native Indian life and began to urge educational reforms on the government of India. Mrs Steel herself became an Inspectress of Government and Aided Schools in the Punjab and also worked with

John Lockwood Kipling John Lockwood Kipling (6 July 1837 – 26 January 1911) was an English art teacher, illustrator and museum curator who spent most of his career in India. He was the father of the author Rudyard Kipling. Life and career Lockwood Kipling was b ...

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...

's father, fostering Indian cooking. When her husband's health was weak, Flora Annie Steel took over some of his responsibilities. She died at her daughter's house in

Minchinhampton Minchinhampton is a Cotswold Hills, Cotswolds market town and a civil parish in the Stroud District of Gloucestershire, South West England. The town is located on a hilltop, south-east of Stroud. The common offers wide views over the Severn Est ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

on 12 April 1929. Her biographers include

Violet Powell Lady Violet Georgiana Powell (''née'' Pakenham; 13 March 1912 – 12 January 2002) was a British writer and critic. Her husband was the author Anthony Powell. Life and career Lady Violet was the third daughter of Thomas Pakenham, 5th Ear ...

and Daya Patwardhan.

Writing

Flora was interested in relating to all classes of

Indian society Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

. The birth of her daughter gave her a chance to interact with local women and learn their language. She encouraged the production of local handicrafts and collected folk-tales, a collection of which she published in 1894. Her interest in schools and the education of women gave her insight into native life and character. A year before leaving India, she co-authored and published '' The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook'', which gave detailed directions to European women on all aspects of household management in India. In 1889 the family moved back to Britain, and she continued her writing there. Some of her best work, according to the 1911 ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', is contained in two collections of her short stories, ''From the Five Rivers'' and ''Tales of the Punjab''. She also wrote a popular history of India. John F. Riddick describes Steel's ''The Hosts of the Lord'' as one of the "three significant works" produced by

Anglo-Indian Anglo-Indian people are a distinct minority group, minority community of mixed-race British and Indian ancestry. During the colonial period, their ancestry was defined as British paternal and Indian maternal heritage; post-independence, "Angl ...

writers on Indian missionaries, along with ''The Old Missionary'' (1895) by

William Wilson Hunter Sir William Wilson Hunter (15 July 18406 February 1900) was a Scottish historian, statistician, a compiler and a member of the Indian Civil Service. He is most known for ''The Imperial Gazetteer of India'' on which he started working in 1869, ...

and ''Idolatry'' (1909) by

Alice Perrin Alice Perrin or Alice Robinson (15 July 1867 – 13 February 1934) was a British novelist who wrote about the British in colonial India. She became successful after the publication of her short ghost story collection ''East of Suez''. Life Perr ...

. Among her other literary associates in India was

Bithia Mary Croker Bithia Mary Croker (née Sheppard, 28 May 1847 – 20 October 1920) was an Irish novelist most known for her works concerning life and society in British India. She also wrote ghost stories. Life Croker was born in 1847 in Warrenpoint, County ...

Douglas Sladen Douglas Brooke Wheelton Sladen (5 February 1856, London-12 February 1947, Hove) was an English author and academic. Life Educated at Temple Grove School, East Sheen, Cheltenham College, and Trinity College, Oxford, in 1879 Sladen migrated to A ...

: "Lady Authors", in: ''Twenty Years of My Life'' (London: Constable, 1915), p. 120 ff.

Bibliography

References

External links

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Play 'Grand-dad' by Steel on Great War Theatre
{{DEFAULTSORT:Steel, Flora Annie 1847 births 1929 deaths People from Wembley Writers from the London Borough of Brent British people in colonial India Writers from British India English short story writers 19th-century English novelists 20th-century English novelists 19th-century English historians 19th-century English short story writers 20th-century English short story writers 19th-century English women writers 20th-century English women writers 20th-century English historians English tax resisters Feminism in India English women historians