Viola Bayley


Viola Clare Bayley 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 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 .
Death: 11 January 1997

Works

  • The Wings of the Morning. Tales *
  • The Ways of Wonderland
  • The Dark Lantern
  • White Holiday *. On holiday in Switzerland, Rosamund and her brother help their skiing instructor to uncover a mystery which threatens his life
  • Storm on the Marsh
  • April Gold
  • Paris Adventure
  • Little Mallows
  • Lebanon Adventure
  • Kashmir Adventure
  • Turkish Adventure
  • Corsican Adventure
  • Shadow on the Wall
  • Swedish Adventure
  • Mission on the Moor *
  • London Adventure
  • Italian Adventure
  • Scottish Adventure
  • Welsh Adventure
  • Austrian Adventure *
  • Jersey Adventure
  • Adriatic Adventure *
  • Caribbean Adventure *. 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
  • Shadows on the Cape *
* date of first edition. Other dates of first edition not verified
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Shorter stories in collections:
"Turn of the Tide" in Collins Girl's Annual 1955

"Walls of Snow" in Collins Girl's Annual 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
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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
  • Abenteuer in Paris
  • So tüchtig wie Tissie or Eine Überraschung jagt die andere
  • Abenteuer im Libanon
  • Abenteuer in Kaschmir
  • Schatten über Penderwick
  • Abenteuer in Italien
  • Abenteuer in Schottland
  • Abenteuer in Wales
  • Abenteuer auf Jersey
  • Karibisches Abenteuer
  • Abenteuer in Griechenland
  • Flammen über dem Tafelberg

    French

  • Une ombre sur le mur
  • Aventure aux Caraïbes
  • Au-dessus du gouffre in 15 histoires d'aventure pour Filles

    Dutch

  • De schaduw op de muur
  • Het raadsel van het heidehuis

    Swedish

  • Äventyr i Paris