Fonds F0145 - Sara Woods fonds

Sara Woods, mystery and crime writer, is the nom de plume of Lana Bowen-Judd, born in 1922 in Bradford, Yorkshire, England and educated at Convent of Sacred Heart in Filey, Yorkshire. During the Second World War, she worked in a bank and as a solicitor's clerk in London, England. Following her marriage to Anthony George Bowen-Judd on April 25, 1946, she worked alongside her husband as a pig breeder from 1948 to 1954. In 1957, they emigrated to Halifax, Nova Scotia where Woods worked as registrar of St. Mary's University until 1964. She published her first novel, 'Bloody Instructions' in 1962, and between 1962 and 1985 wrote fifty-three mystery novels most of which were published in the United Kingdom and the United States. Only 'Call Back Yesterday' (1983) was published in Canada. In addition to publishing as Sara Woods, she also published under the names of Anne Burton, Mary Challis and Margaret Leek. She was a member of the Society of Authors (England), the Authors League of America, the Mystery Writers of America and the Crime Writers Association (England). She also helped found Crime Writers of Canada and served on its first executive committee. Her final home was Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario where she lived with her husband from 1981 until her death in 1985.