Winifred Holtby in Cottingham and Hull

Holtby House is an imposing building in Thwaite Street just outside the village of Cottingham, and belonged to the Holtby family, although it was originally known as 'Bainesse'. It was later owned by Hull University for some years, but is now in private ownership.

'ONE OF THE

ODDEST STREET NAMES

IN THE COUNTRY.

LAND OF

GREEN GINGER

WAS THE TITLE OF A

WINIFRED HOLTBY NOVEL'.

THE NAME'S ORIGIN

REMAINS A MYSTERY.'

'The Land of Green Ginger' is an exotic name for the street in the center of Hull, and is the name of a Holtby novel too, although it is not one of her best. Many people would perhaps claim the posthumously published South Riding (1936) holds that honor, although I was far more impressed by her The Crowded Street (1923), which for most of its length has the spinster protagonist Muriel (and Holtby of course did the spinster novel very well) virtually incapable of functioning without others moving before her, but ends transcendentally by her taking responsibility for her own actions and thus defining herself.

But for a very different - and much neglected - non-spinster novel, there is The Astonishing Island: Being a Veracious Record of the Experience Undergone by Robinson Lippingtree Mackintosh from Tristan da Cunha during an Accidental Visit to Unknown Territory in the Year of Grace MCMCC–? (1933), in which the above mentioned protagonist fails to understand the insanity of life in Great Britain: this is a wonderful opportunity for Winifred Holtby to satirize social ills in a much wider context.

My other post on Winifred Holtby:

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Winifred Holtby in East Yorkshire #4: Sunk Island
Winifred Holtby in East Yorkshire #3:Withernsea
Winifred Holtby in East Yorkshire #2:Hornsea
Winifred Holtby in East Yorkshire #1: Rudston