Sara Woods
Sara Woods was a prolific author born in Bradford, Yorkshire, England, who later became a prominent figure in the Canadian literary scene. After working in various roles during World War II, she transitioned from a bank and legal clerk to a pig breeder before finding her passion for writing in Canada. In 1958, she moved to Nova Scotia, where she eventually became the registrar at St. Mary's University in Halifax. By 1964, she had left her administrative career to focus entirely on writing, producing over fifty novels predominantly featuring her main character, Anthony Maitland, a complex barrister embroiled in legal mysteries often resolved in climactic courtroom scenes.
Woods's books are notable for their connection to Shakespeare, with titles deriving from relevant quotes, reflecting her literary influences. While her novels gained popularity, some Canadian critics expressed disappointment that her works were primarily published in the U.K. and the U.S., rather than celebrating Canadian narratives. In the early 1980s, she published fourteen books in a short span, experimenting with different protagonists and pseudonyms, though none achieved the same acclaim as Maitland. Following her passing, her manuscripts and papers were archived at York University in Toronto, highlighting her contributions to the Canadian literary landscape and the complexities surrounding national identity in literature.
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Sara Woods
Writer
- Born: March 7, 1922
- Birthplace: Bradford, Yorkshire, England
- Died: November 6, 1985
- Place of death: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Biography
The daughter of Sara Roberta (Woods) and Francis Burton Hutton, Sara Woods was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, England, where she was educated privately and at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Filey, Yorkshire. She married Anthony George Bowen-Judd in 1946. During World War II, she worked in a bank and as a solicitor’s clerk in London. She left office life for a stint as a pig breeder in 1948, but returned to the business world in 1954 in a secretarial position in Gloucester. In 1958, she and her husband moved to Nova Scotia, Canada, where she became registrar of St. Mary’s University in Halifax. By 1964, she quit to become a full-time writer.
Although Woods had long wanted to be an author, it was not until she moved to Canada that she turned her attention to writing. Once she began, though, she was prolific: she published over fifty books during the next twenty-five years.
Nearly all of her novels are mysteries featuring Anthony Maitland, a London barrister who could be described as Perry Mason afflicted with angst. Maitland consistently triumphs, usually in a climactic courtroom scene; but along the way, he is preoccupied with self-doubt, constantly examining both his own feelings and motives and those of his (generally innocent) clients. As an added point of interest, the title of each of these books is taken from an apropos Shakespearean quote. Woods’s experiences in a London law office help make the legal plotting of her books true to life. However, perhaps because she continued to write about a city and country she had left behind, the London she portrays often seems limited and a bit lifeless.
The Maitland novels were all published in New York and London, a point of pique for some Canadians who regret that their most prolific author (although a British transplant) did not write about or publish in her adopted country. However, in a spate of extraordinary prolificacy, in 1980-1982 she published fourteen books with four different protagonists, using four different pseudonyms. Besides eight Maitland novels, these included two novels about Richard Trenton, a controller in a London bank; two featuring Stephen Marryat, an estate agent and auctioneer in the English countryside; and two about Jeremy Locke, another English lawyer. The non-Maitland books were her only novels originally published by a Canadian house. None of the other three series characters developed the same popularity as Maitland, and after 1982 all of her books featured him.
William Deverell, Canadian crime writer and former lawyer, wrote, “Through much of the 1900’s, Canadian crime writers masqueraded as American or British, often hiding behind pseudonyms, as if in shame. Luke Allan, Guy Morton, Sara Woods were among dozens of best-selling Canadians afraid to come out of the closet.” Woods, of course, really was British, but now, after her death, her manuscripts and papers are part of the Canadian Studies archive at the library of York University in Toronto, where a growing collection encourages the study of Canadian authors.