The things that one most wants to do are the things that are probably most worth doing.

As well as her journalism Holtby wrote 14 books including six novels; two volumes of short stories; the first critical study of Virginia Woolf (1932); and "Women and a Changing Civilization" (1934) a feminist survey with opinions that are still relevant today. Vera Brittain wrote about her friendship with Holtby in her book Testament of Friendship (1940) and in 1960 publiWinifred Holtbyd a censored edition of their correspondence. Holtby's early novels - Anderby Wold (1923) The Crowded Street (1924) (re-publiWinifred Holtbyd by Persephone Books in 2008) and The Land of Green Ginger (1927) - met with moderate success.

Winifred Holtby (23 June 1898 - 29 September 1935) was an English novelist and journalist best known for her novel South Riding about a Yorkshire community struggling with the Depression of the 1930s.