DEATH OF A NOVELIST

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 639, 16 April 1929, Page 9

DEATH OF A NOVELIST

MRS. FLORA ANNIE STEEL (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) LONDON, Monday. The death has occurred of Mrs. Flora Annie Steel, the well-known Anglo-Indian novelist, aged 82. Mrs. Steel was born at Harrow, being a daughter of George Webster, sheriff-clerk of Forfarshire. She married in 1867 an official in the Bengal Civil Service and lived for .many years in India. There she obtained that profound knowledge of the country which is reflected in many of her novels. Her fine tale of the Indian Mutiny, “On the Face of the Waters,” is the book by which she is best known. Different Anglo-Indian problems are discussed in "Voices of the Night,” such as mixed marriages, relations between soldiers and the population, caste, and political and social questions. The theme of "The Hosts of the Lord” is the mutual assimilation of East and West without injury to either. Mrs. Steel wrote two studies of Akbar, the Great Mogul—“A Prince of Dreamers,” which tells of his ideals for the regeneration of the world, and "The Adventures of Akbar”: also a popular history of India. Among her other books are three Scottish stories, "Red Rowan,” "In the Tideway,” and “The Gift of the Gods,” and the following novels: "Miss Stuart’s Legacy,” “The Potter’s Thumb.” “A Sovereign Remedy,” "The Mercy of the Lord.” “Marmaduke,” "The Law of the Threshold,” and ”Mistress of Men.”