Stella Gibbons was born in London in 1902. She went to the North London Collegiate School and studied journalism at University College, London. She then worked for ten years on various papers, including the Evening Standard. Stella Gibbons is the author of twenty-five novels, three volumes of short stories, and four volumes of poetry. Her first publication was a book of poems, The Mountain Beast (1930) and her first novel Cold Comfort Farm (1932) won the Femina Vie Heuruse Prize for 1933. Among her works are Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm (1940) Westwood (1946), Conference at Cold Comfort Farm (1959) and Starlight (1967). She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1950. In 1933 she married the actor and singer Allan Webb. They had one daughter. Stella Gibbons died in 1989.
Fans of the acclaimed British author, described as the Jane Austen of the 20th century will be delighted that the existence of two never-before-published novels have been revealed by her daughter. Independent Stella Gibbons's gift is very special Daily Express Gibbons was an acute and witty observer, and her dissection of the British class system is spot-on Mail on Sunday An intriguingly original story. -- Libby Purves The Times Gibbons portrays her heroine with such sensitivity that this young woman and her story prove impossible to resist. -- Sarah Pitcher Daily Express