Viola Bayley Explained
| Viola Bayley |
| Birth Name: | Viola Clare Wingfield Powles |
| Birth Date: | 8 January 1911 |
| Birth Place: | Rye, England |
| Death Date: | (aged 85 or 86) |
| Death Place: | Rye, England |
| Occupation: | Novelist, teacher |
| Nationality: | English |
| Citizenship: | British |
| Genre: | Adventure, Mystery, Fantasy |
| Subject: | Children's literature |
| Language: | English |
Viola Clare Bayley (8 January 1911 – January 1997) was a British children's writer of adventure stories.
Life
Viola Clare Wingfield Powles was born on 8 January 1911, in Rye, Sussex. Her parents were Isabel Grace Wingfield and Lewis Charles Powles. She was educated at Effingham House, Behnke Drama School, and Licenciate of the Guildhall School of Music.
In the winter of 1933 she visited her uncle, a high Court Judge, in Lahore in India. There she met Vernon Thomas Bayley (C.M.G., O.B.E.) of the Indian Police and got engaged. She returned to England to be married and subsequently returned to Hangu in India with her husband in 1934. In 1935 they moved to Delhi. Over the years frequent trips to places such as Simla and Gulmarg took place. After the war, they returned to England in 1946.
The couple has two sons, two daughters.
1975/76: short memoir of the first year in India, and One Woman's Raj about her time in India https://web.archive.org/web/20100418153116/http://www.s-asian.cam.ac.uk/Handlist_B.htm#BAYLEY_V.
Death: 11 January 1997
Works
- The Wings of the Morning. Tales (1936)*
- The Ways of Wonderland (1938)
- The Dark Lantern (1951)
- White Holiday (1953)*. On holiday in Switzerland, Rosamund and her brother help their skiing instructor to uncover a mystery which threatens his life
- Storm on the Marsh (1953)
- April Gold (1954)
- Paris Adventure (1954)
- Little Mallows (1955)
- Lebanon Adventure (1955)
- Kashmir Adventure (1956)
- Turkish Adventure (1957)
- Corsican Adventure (1957)
- Shadow on the Wall (1958)
- Swedish Adventure (1959)
- Mission on the Moor (1960)*
- London Adventure (1962)
- Italian Adventure (1964)
- Scottish Adventure (1965)
- Welsh Adventure (1966)
- Austrian Adventure (1968)*
- Jersey Adventure (1969)
- Adriatic Adventure (1970)*
- Caribbean Adventure (1971)*. Tricia and her friends the Hamilton's go to stay with their cousin Derek who has inherited an estate on the island of Grenada.
- Greek Adventure (1972)
- Shadows on the Cape (1985)*
* date of first edition. Other dates of first edition not verified
----
Shorter stories in collections:
"Turn of the Tide" in Collins Girl's Annual 1955
"Walls of Snow" in Collins Girl's Annual (1953 ?) 128 pages
... in Stirring Stories for Girls, 1960, Duthie, Eric. Editor
... in The Favourite Book for Girls
... in Girls' Story Omnibus
"Walls of Snow" in The Splendid Book for Girls (about 1956)
----A number of these works were illustrated by Marcia Lane Foster
Other languages
A number of her works were translated into other languages
German
- Die Schwarze Laterne (The Dark Lantern)
- Abenteuer in Paris (Paris Adventure)
- So tüchtig wie Tissie or Eine Überraschung jagt die andere (Little Mallows)
- Abenteuer im Libanon (Lebanon Adventure)
- Abenteuer in Kaschmir (Kashmir Adventure)
- Schatten über Penderwick (Shadow on the Wall)
- Abenteuer in Italien (Italian Adventure)
- Abenteuer in Schottland (Scottish Adventure)
- Abenteuer in Wales (Welsh Adventure)
- Abenteuer auf Jersey (Jersey Adventure)
- Karibisches Abenteuer (Caribbean Adventure)
- Abenteuer in Griechenland (Greek Adventure)
- Flammen über dem Tafelberg (Shadows on the Cape)
French
- Une ombre sur le mur (Shadow on the Wall)
- Aventure aux Caraïbes (Caribbean Adventure)
- Au-dessus du gouffre in 15 histoires d'aventure pour Filles
Dutch
- De schaduw op de muur (Shadow on the Wall)
- Het raadsel van het heidehuis (Mission on the Moor)
Swedish
- Äventyr i Paris (Paris Adventure)
References
Author's and Writer's Who's Who, 1963 https://archive.org/stream/authorsandwriter012067mbp/authorsandwriter012067mbp_djvu.txt
Viola Bayley by Julie Makin https://www.peakirkbooks.com/page/viola
Viola Bayley, Rye Castle Museum http://www.ryemuseum.co.uk/viola-bayley/
Sources
- Book: Legg, Stephen . Spaces of colonialism: Delhi's urban governmentalities . Blackwell Publishing . Malden, Massachusetts . 2007 . 9781405156332 .
- Book: Collingham, Elizabeth M. . Curry: a tale of cooks and conquerors . Vintage . London . 2006 . 9780099437864 .
- Gowans. Georgina . Travelling home: British women sailing from India, 1940–1947 . . 29 . 1 . 81–95 . 10.1016/j.wsif.2005.10.008 . January–February 2006 .
- Introduction by Sir Christopher Bayly
