Winifred Holtby (1898-1935) is best-known today for her friendship with fellow feminist and pacifist Vera Brittain and for her last novel, South Riding, published posthumously in 1936. This final work was the culmination of Holtby's ideas on the importance of community and has become her artistic legacy. The interwar period in which Holtby wrote saw great changes in ideas of social responsibility, class, gender roles and imperialism. The main aim of this study is to trace Holtby's social ideology, from her early work in the 1920s until her death, placing it in the context of wider social change. It is the first monograph to provide a literary criticism of Holtby's social philosophy and presents in-depth readings of all her major works as well as some of her less well-known writing.