English Fairy Tales

Illustrated by Arthur Rackham

Flora Annie Steel (1847 - 1929) was an English writer who lived in British India for 22 years. She was noted especially for writing books set in India or otherwise connected with it. She was born Flora Annie Webster in Sudbury, Middlesex, the sixth child of George Webster. In 1867, she married Henry William Steel, a member of the Indian Civil Service and for the next twenty-two years lived in India (until 1889), chiefly in the Punjab, with which most of her books are connected. She grew deeply interested in native Indian life and began to urge educational reforms on the government of India. Mrs Steel became an Inspectress of Government and Aided Schools in the Punjab.