Editing R. F. Delderfield (section)

===Autobiography===
In ''For My Own Amusement'' (1972), Delderfield discusses the inspiration for the storylines and tells in anecdotes the origin of several of his characters. He believed that authors draw inspiration from the scenes of their youth, pointing out that [[Charles Dickens]]' characters nearly always used the [[stagecoach]], when he was writing in the age of the train. Delderfield calls his sources "character farms", the main ones being his time in Addiscombe, schooldays, and his time at the ''Exmouth Chronicle''. Of ''The Avenue'' and ''A Horseman Riding By'' he said, "I set out to tell a straightforward story of a group of undistinguished British people—the only kind of people I really know." Delderfield pointed out in this autobiography that he had been criticized for his very conventional views of women's social roles.