H.E. Bates

Featuring the Larkin family, this book tells the story of the family's trip to France and features the latest addition to the family, baby Oscar.

A Breath of French Air

With a letter announcing the imminent arrival of Madame Dupont, Pop and Ma Larkin learn that little Oscar and Blenheim - are to be christened. Pop, who needs no excuse to open a few bottles and host the perfick party, rushes out and buys a fun fair to celebrate. But there are one or two gatecrashers even Pop hadn't counted on turning up.

Oh! to be in England

Pop Larkin - junk-dealer, manages to sell the nearby crumbling, tumbling country home to city dwellers Mr and Mrs Jerebohm. But the Larkin's new neighbours aren't quite so accepting of Pop's little eccentricities. In fact, it's not long before a wobbly boat, a misplaced pair of hands and Mrs Jerebohm's behind have Pop up before a magistrate.

When the Green Woods Laugh

Stories about children are not always for children. In The Watercress Girl, H. E. Bates masterfully depicts a childhood which, by proxy, reveals the mystifying world of the adult. Through a series of short, lyrical stories, the complexities of the world are seen with crystalline purity through the eyes of children. We experience the joyous and painful clarity of youth, full of fears, hopes and make-believe, and the trust and mistrust of the adult world. A little boy, charmed by the golden-throated Miss Mortenson, witnesses her fall from grace in 'The Pemberton Thrush'. Three children become entangled in a forbidden love when they witness a man attempting suicide in 'A Great Day for Bonzo', and a father reveals more of his past than he intends to in 'The Far Distant Journey'. First published in 1959, The Watercress Girl is a rich collection of stories, exploring a world full of wonder but also of unease; an unease of not yet understanding the world or being fully part of it.

The Watercress Girl

Uşor vântul bătea spre Franţa

Visiting his aunt's pub is normally a waiting game, sitting outside to avoid the musty smell of beer and bacca. But when old Smiler takes a seat beside him, sucking in pint after pint through his gingery whiskers, a whole new world of battles and bones opens up before him... H. E. Bates – a prolific English novelist and short story writer – wrote 'Castle in the Air' for The Evening News in 1957, but the story was never re-printed in any of his later collections. In fact, its existence was forgotten until 2013 when it was spotted accidentally during a rummage through a newspaper archive. On re-discovering this charming and humorous short story – which exemplifies H.E. Bates's great skill of drawing vivid characters and his ability to create an almost tangible sense of a place – Bates's descendants felt it had to be shared with a wider audience. Bloomsbury Reader is delighted to be re-publishing 'Castle in the Air' alongside the whole body of H. E. Bates's short fiction and novellas, and here we offer it as a free taste of Bates's irresistible writing.

Castle in the Air

Now the basis for a major motion picture from the producers of Howard's End and The Remains of the Day--a brooding, suspenseful novel of sensuality and vengenance, set amid the fields and villages of 19th century England. Bella Ford, jilted by her unscrupulous lover, plans revenge that ends in a catastrophic act of violence.

Feast of July

Published posthumously in 1976, these stories include some familiar characters and scenarios, as well as an uncharacteristic vignette portraying urban hooligans. The title story, 'The Yellow Meads of Asphodel', looks at the apparently stagnant lives of a brother and sister, both in their forties, who live together in the country house left to them by their parents. Their lives are uprooted, however, when one of them falls in love. Two loved characters are revisited. Uncle Silas in 'Loss of Pride', where Silas recounts how he and his friends dealt with an obnoxious braggart and womanizer; and in 'The Proposal', published shortly after Bates's death, the story continues Bates's entertaining tales of Miss Shuttleworth. In 'The Lap of Luxury', a year after the end of war, two former pilots, Maxie and Roger, revisit France to trace Maxie's escape route from a prisoner of war camp. They separate, and Roger is taken in by a lovely, rich widow. But after nearly a year, his leisurely life ends with the arrival of the woman's true lover. The collection also features two bonus stories. First published in 1934, 'The Mad Woman' is a comic sketch about two boys, frustrated in the constraints of youth where everything is 'boring', who decide to spy on the local mad woman. The tale relates their wild speculations, their suspense and fear, and the stories they concoct after their adventure. 'From This Time Forward', first published in 1943, is narrated by a pilot, visiting the family of a recently deceased colleague, who learns a different side to his old friend's character. He discusses, with the aristocratic mother and sister of the dead pilot, their conflicting memories in a wrought and tender exploration of the fallacy of knowing.

The Yellow Meads of Asphodel

The Day of the Tortoise, a novella published in 1961, is a touching tale of a brief interlude of pleasure in the stale existence of Fred Tomlinson, a man nearing his sixties. A bachelor, Fred shops, cleans, cooks, and otherwise indulges the eccentric demands of his three spinster sisters until a chance meeting with the fun-loving Kitty who, without the sisters' knowledge, begins to disrupt the household's long-established routines. Penniless, heavy-drinking, and pregnant by a married man, Kitty introduces Fred to dance, drink, kisses, and song while lodging in the stable. With Kitty's inevitable departure, will Fred retain some of his newly-discovered capacity for rebelliousness and joy?

The Day of the Tortoise

Seven Tales and Alexander beautifully captures a spectrum of emotions from innocent childhood and early adolescence, to those of simple-hearted and uninquiring old age. On its original release in 1929 (The Scholartis Press), The New Statesman observed that Bates has 'by seeing with a child's eyes, found a world of marvellous and strange beauty, and has given the smallest shades of change and emotion the magnitude and drama they have in the minds of children and poets.' In 'The Child' we meet a young girl mesmerised by the sea seen through a multi-coloured window, and, in contrast, 'The Comic Actor' sees an unsuccessful farmer who, encouraged by his devoted family, fulfils a life ambition by participating in a village play. Bates draws on his own experiences of the barber shops of his youth in 'The Barber'. Forced to visit them on Saturdays, he was made to wait until the barber had served the army of 'black-necked, poaching, shoemaking, prizefighting, often stinking men.' The title story, 'Alexander', follows a young boy as he travels with his uncle by horse cart to the garden of an eccentric old lady, where each year they pick fruit. The boy becomes enamoured with a young girl, meets a darkly cunning and cynical poacher, picks a forbidden apricot as a gift for the girl, and is consequently thrust into first reflections on pleasure, pain, and life itself in this most charming story.

Seven Tales and Alexander

'An honest and skillfully told love story' - New York Times Lydia - shy, sheltered, beautiful and just nineteen - glides into Evensford one wintry day, stirring up feeling amongst the town's young men. But it is the young Mr Richardson that she befriends. As winter turns to drowsy summer, his world becomes a wondrous place, full only of Lydia; but a change comes over the once retiring girl as she discovers the effect she has on other men. As his closest friends fall under her spell, the love Richardson feels for Lydia becomes tangled with jealousy and resentment, a rift that may never be repaired. First published in 1952, Love for Lydia is a poignant look at love through the eyes of a boy growing up. Set amidst the hazy beauty of the English countryside and the crumbling splendour of the British upper classes, Bates demonstrates his ability to capture the complexities of human character, his remarkable talent for contrasting romance against stark reality, and the innocence, joy and sadness of young love.

Love for Lydia

The Bride Comes to Evensford, a novella first published in 1943, follows a woman from her arrival in a small town (modelled on Bates's native Rushden) to her work for a draper, her marriage to him, her increasing command over the business and the household, and finally to her infatuation with a young man as a widow in her fifties. Written and published in the midst of Bates's work for the Air Ministry, but hearkening back in style and subject matter to his pre-war stories, this is a beautiful study of one woman's life, her hopes and disappointments. Philip Toynbee stated that it had “a fine elegant shape, covering with formidable skill a period of thirty years in only twice as many pages...Mr. Bates is a master of restraint...in a period of over-exuberance."

The Bride Comes to Evensford

Something Short and Sweet, H. E. Bates's sixth collection first published in 1937, demonstrates his mastery of character and form. Richard Church, writing in John O'London's Weekly, stated that this collection confirmed his belief that Bates "is an immortal...Here is a creative artist whose technique in the art of the short story is comparable with that of the great masters in this form." The title story explores the intricacies of the relationship between a forty-year-old evangelist and his twenty-year-old assistant. 'Cloudburst' and 'Spring Snow' are vignettes of human struggle in a rural context, similar to much of Bates's earlier work. 'Finger Wet, Finger Dry' and 'The Sow and Silas' continue Bates's success with the antics of Uncle Silas. The Morning Post commented that "each story stands out individual and distinct...In each the theme has been worked over, walked round, sifted, considered, a stance as viewpoint selected, the ultimate significance determined."

Something Short and Sweet

First published in 1964, The Fabulous Mrs. V. is a late collection of twelve stories celebrating comedy and Bates's ability to paint amusing, idiosyncratic women. 'A Couple of Fools' follows two fashionable young women, ripe for a luxurious Sunday afternoon outing, who find that their flamboyant hats win them attention and favours at every step. They and their male admirers become too drunk for anything but a taxi home. Another story similarly celebrates liquor, food, and sex. 'A Party for the Girls' is a comic celebration of life where a group of older women drink lavish quantities of alcohol at a luncheon and compete for the attention of the sole male guest. 'The Trespasser' is a comic piece involving a near-sighted and eccentric spinster 'who looked not at all unlike a round fresh radish,' and a young man who watches with some disgust as his aunt orchestrates the seduction of her future husband. But it is not just the women who are given Bates's quirky treatment. 'The Cat Who Sang' observes an overworked teacher who hallucinates that his black cat Susie is able to sing Schubert's 'Trout' theme. In 'A Dream of Fair Women' a body building adolescent boy engages in vivid fantasies about women risque enough to be reprinted in Penthouse Magazine in 1965. Also included with this cast of quirky characters is a retired Reverend in bonus story 'The Electric Christ', who becomes enamoured with a statue of Christ with an electric halo and purchases it for his home. The Times Literary Supplement found that the collection 'demonstrates that both his vigour and unique ability to evoke, visually, his settings and characters remain undiminished.'

The Fabulous Mrs. V.

H.E. Bates's fifth collection is a sparkling body of work full of stories of childhood. Geoffrey West observed the collection overall as "bright with life, with individuals alive and interacting, and with the sweeping beauties of broad country backgrounds." Often cited as one of Bates's best stories, 'The Mill' relates the misfortune of a young girl in service. Bates was inspired by the daughter of a travelling greengrocer who called on his family: "It seemed to me a face moulded out of yellow clay: a face born to tragedy. I believe it is true that Hardy saw his Tess only once and ... from that fleeting experience, haunted also by a face, created his celebrated novel.” We get a glimpse into Bates's negative experiences of education in both 'Little Fish', where a boy observes his father, normally a man "terrifying everyone in spasms of half-theatrical anger" become, in the presence of a school administrator, furtive and apprehensive; and in 'Jonah and Bruno', a classroom tale involving an arrogant and dictatorial teacher, a rebellious smart-mouthed student, and the eventual humiliation of the teacher by an intervening soldier. Comic relief comes in the form of witty characterisation and dialogue in 'The Irishman', and in 'The Revelation', a charming tale where the young narrator observes the housekeeper giving an elderly Uncle Silas his weekly bath; between roasting "taters" and drinking wine, Silas relates his childhood follies, including the time he chased a young woman "across the meadow with my clothes under her arms," which leads to a tender twist in the tale.

Cut and Come Again

When Pop Larkin suffers a mild heart attack, Ma Larkin sends a succession of women up to his bedroom to tempt him back to health.

A Little of What You Fancy

The Woman Who Had Imagination, H.E. Bates's fourth volume of stories, first published in 1934 (Jonathan Cape), is a fascinating collection of contrasts. The stories combine elements of realism and poetry, beauty and ugliness, tenderness and irony. Graham Greene, writing in the Spectator, lauded the collection as 'the first volume of Mr. Bates's maturity' and Bates as 'an artist of magnificent originality with a vitality quite unsuspected hitherto'. This is brilliantly demonstrated in the title story, 'The Woman Who Had Imagination', the heart-rending story of an Italian woman, revealed through the casual meetings and conversations that take place on a day's outing of a country choir. The contrast between 'The Waterfall', with its melancholy and grace, and the disturbing tensions in 'The Brothers', emphasises Bates's mastery of both the delicate and the disquieting. It is also in this collection that we are introduced to the much-loved comic narrator, Uncle Silas, in 'The Lily', 'The Wedding' and 'Death of Uncle Silas.' In addition to the original collection this edition includes two extra stories. 'The Country Doctor' concerns a woman's grief on the death of her dearest friend. It was first published in the Fortnightly Review in 1931 with the title 'The Country Sale', and later in the limited edition The Story Without an End and The Country Doctor (White Owl Press, 1932), and has not been reprinted since. 'The Parrot' chronicles a man, a marriage and the eponymous parrot, and has only previously been published in 1928 in T.P.'s Weekly, founded by the radical MP, T.P. O'Connor.

The Woman Who Had Imagination

Day's End and Other Stories, H. E. Bates's first short story collection published in 1928 when he was just 23, depicts the rural lives of quirky characters cast in his distinctive, beautifully drawn style. Each story has a youthful quality, intimate and often profound, perfectly demonstrating the progression of this masterful wordsmith. Bates explores bittersweet young love in 'The Birthday', the delightful reflections of a man spellbound by the sounds of the sea and the breathing of his new baby in 'The Holiday', and two old friends in 'Fishing', described by David Garnett as a tale that “could hardly be shorter and could hardly be slighter, but it is a complete and perfect little work of art, full of humour and containing a profound reflection on human life." This edition of Day's End and Other Stories, published by Bloomsbury Reader to celebrate H. E. Bates's 110th birthday anniversary, is enhanced with a bonus story – In View of the Fact That – a rare gem previously published in a small pamphlet in 1927, and never reproduced.

Day's End and Other Stories

The Beauty of the Dead (Jonathan Cape, 1940) featuring fifteen stories, was released to critical acclaim. Pamela Hansford Johnson wrote in John O'London's Weekly that "all have that delicate luminosity by which visions are seen more clearly than in the bright sunlight." 'Old' is a snapshot of an elderly man – no longer appreciated or respected by his children and extended family – during a Sunday tea. He finds a companion in his seven-year-old grand-niece, making animal shapes out of biscuits and eventually falling into a "mesmeric peace" as she brushes his hair. There is a glimpse of Bates's childhood experiences in 'Quartette', written through the eyes of a music director. The story accounts the attraction between two of the singers which the director worries is breaking up the group, yet on their last song he can feel "the passionate quality of their singing transcending the small hot room and the small bewildered minds". Bates had much personal knowledge of choirs and singing through his father, who was a choir director. 'The Bridge' is narrated by a twenty-two-year-old woman while she and her older sister vie for the attention of the same man. The Spectator praised it as "a masterly short story...courageously conceived... thick with symbolism, it is a triumphant display of control." For the first time, this collection features the comic bonus story 'Obadiah'. After a tough, poverty-stricken childhood, Obadiah's scheme to make his fortune begins with a pig. He wanted neither children nor romance, but a partner in business, so when he meets a widow with similar values, he wins her over in what becomes a comic sketch of a bickering couple – a rare and brilliant piece of caricature in Bates's canon. Published in the New Clarion (1933), and not republished since.

The Beauty of the Dead and Other Stories

The Flying Goat (Jonathan Cape, 1939) features sixteen diverse stories from slapstick sketches to portraits of marital tension; one Uncle Silas tale; and three that hark back to Bates's boyhood roots. 'A Funny Thing' is an escalating bragging match between Uncle Silas and Uncle Cosmos. Cosmos is modelled on Bates's paternal grandfather, Charles Lawrence, who was "known about Rushden as a dapper and dashing figure who spent his holidays in the south of France, where he reputedly had a number of mistresses". A television adaptation starring Albert Finney was aired in 2003. In a cautionary tale, ever-relevant today, 'Shot Actress – Full Story' is an account of the death of a former actress, and of the damaging effect of rumours. In commenting on the public's obsession with scandal and journalism, the tale reflects Bates's early newspaper work at the Northamptonshire Chronicle as well as a wider social commentary. The Times Literary Supplement singled out 'The White Pony' and 'The Ox' as "faultless things, jewels as luminous and as finely cut as any Mr. Bates has turned out. In each of them the evocative strength of his countryside pictures is joined to a still and poignant emotion that seems to project a background of universal experience for a particular sorrow." The bonus story 'Pensioned Off' is a sensitive and touching tale of a Latin teacher approaching the end of his career, reflecting on his obsolete methods of trying to teach a dying language. The story is based in part on Bates's own Latin teacher who he described as "extremely fat", so in a sweetly comic moment we hear how he fasts every Thursday so as not to become obese. Published in the New Adelphi (1929), and not republished since.

H.E. Bates

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