Editing H. E. Bates

{{Short description|British writer (1905–1974)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2022}}
{{More citations needed|date=January 2011}}
{{Infobox writer
| name        = H. E. Bates
| honorific_suffix   = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100|CBE}}
| image       = File:H.E. Bates.jpg
| birth_name  = Herbert Ernest Bates
| birth_date  = {{birth date|1905|05|16|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Rushden]], [[Northamptonshire]], England
| death_date  = {{death date and age|1974|01|29|1905|05|16|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Canterbury]], [[Kent]], England
| citizenship = United Kingdom
| occupation  = Writer
| genre        = Novels, short stories
| language     = English
| notableworks = ''[[Love for Lydia]]'', ''[[The Darling Buds of May (novel)|The Darling Buds of May]]'', ''[[My Uncle Silas]]'', ''[[Fair Stood the Wind for France]]''
}}

'''Herbert Ernest Bates''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CBE}} (16 May 1905&nbsp;– 29 January 1974) was a British writer known for his gritty, realistic short stories (he wrote more than 25 collections) and novels set predominantly in early- to mid-20th century England. His rural upbringing and love of flowers and gardening (on which he wrote two books) informed much of his writing. The semiautobiographical "Love for Lydia" has detailed descriptions of nature in winter, and of the big grounds of Aspen Hall where he meets Lydia. His best-known works include ''[[Love for Lydia]]'', ''[[Fair Stood the Wind for France]]'', ''[[The Darling Buds of May (novel)|The Darling Buds of May]]'', and ''[[My Uncle Silas]]''. Many of his short stories were adapted for British television in the 1970s.

==Early life==
Herbert Ernest Bates was born on 16 May 1905 in [[Rushden]], [[Northamptonshire]], and educated at [[Kettering Grammar School]]. After the end of school, he worked as a reporter and a warehouse clerk.

==Career==
Typically, Bates' best-known works are set in the English countryside, particularly the [[English Midlands|Midlands]] including his native [[Northamptonshire]] and the 'Garden of England', [[Kent]], the setting for ''[[The Darling Buds of May (novel)|The Darling Buds of May]]''. Bates was partial to taking long walks around the Northamptonshire countryside, which often provided the inspiration for his stories. His love for the countryside is exemplified in two volumes of essays, ''Through the Woods'' and ''Down the River''. Both have been reprinted numerous times. Several of Bates's works, such ''The Bride Comes to Evensford'' and ''[[Love for Lydia]]'', are set in the fictional town of Evensford, which is based on Bates's hometown [[Rushden]] in Northamptonshire.

Bates discarded his first novel, written when he was in his late teenage years, but his second, and the first to be published, ''[[The Two Sisters (novel)|The Two Sisters]]'', was inspired by one of his midnight walks, which took him to the small village of [[Farndish]]. There, late at night, he saw a light burning in a cottage window and it was this that triggered the story.<ref>Vannatta, Dennis, 1983, H.E. Bates, Boston, Twayne Publishers, {{ISBN|0-8057-6844-0}}</ref> He was working briefly for the local newspaper in [[Wellingborough]], a job which he hated, and then later at a local shoe-making warehouse, where he had time to write; in fact the whole of this first novel was written there. This was sent to, and rejected by, eight or nine publishers until [[Jonathan Cape]] accepted it on the advice of its respected Reader, [[Edward Garnett]].<ref>Baldwin, Dean, 1987, H.E. Bates, Selinsgrove, Susquehanna University Press, {{ISBN|0-941664-24-4}}</ref> Bates was then twenty years old. More novels, collections of short stories, essays, and articles followed, but did not pay well.

===World War II short stories===
During World War II, he was commissioned into the [[Royal Air Force]] solely to write short stories. The [[Air Ministry]] realised that it might create more favorable public sentiment by emphasizing stories about the people fighting the war, rather than facts. The stories were published originally in the ''[[News Chronicle]]'' with the pseudonym "Flying Officer X". Later they were published in book form as ''The Greatest People in the World and Other Stories'' and ''How Sleep the Brave and Other Stories''. His first financial success was ''[[Fair Stood the Wind for France]]''. After a posting to the Far East, this was followed by two novels about Burma, ''[[The Purple Plain (novel)|The Purple Plain]]'' in 1947 and ''The Jacaranda Tree'' (published in 1949), and one set in India, ''[[The Scarlet Sword]]'' (published in 1950).<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Jacaranda Tree :: HE Bates |url=https://hebates.com/library/the-jacaranda-tree |access-date=2023-08-19 |website=hebates.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Scarlet Sword :: HE Bates |url=https://hebates.com/library/the-scarlet-sword |access-date=2023-08-19 |website=hebates.com}}</ref>

He was also commissioned by the Air Ministry to write ''[https://hebates.com/library/the-battle-of-the-flying-bomb The Battle of the Flying Bomb]'', but because of various disagreements within the government, it was cancelled, and then publication was banned for 30 years. It was discovered by Bob Ogley and published during 1994 with the title ''Flying Bombs over England''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://hebates.com/library/the-battle-of-the-flying-bomb|title="The Battle of the Flying Bomb." :: HE Bates|website=hebates.com}}</ref> Another commission which has still to be published is ''[https://hebates.com/library/the-night-interception-battle-1940-1941 Night Interception Battle]'' concerning the difficulty of tracking enemy aircraft at night.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://hebates.com/library/the-night-interception-battle-1940-1941|title="The Night Interception Battle 1940-1941." :: HE Bates|website=hebates.com}}</ref>

===Post-war work===
Other novels followed after the war; he averaged about one novel and a collection of short stories a year, which was considered very productive at the time. These included ''The Feast of July'' and ''[[Love for Lydia]]''. His most popular creation was the Larkin family in ''[[The Darling Buds of May (novel)|The Darling Buds of May]]''. Pop Larkin and his family were inspired by a person seen in a local shop in Kent by Bates and his family when on holiday. The man (probably Wiltshire trader William Dell, also on holiday) had a huge wad of rubber-banded bank notes and proceeded to treat his trailer load of children with Easter eggs and ice creams.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23371147-details/The+family+that+inspired+hit+TV+series+The+Darling+Buds+of+May/article.do |title=The family that inspired hit TV series The Darling Buds of May|work=[[Evening Standard]]| location = UK|date=18 October 2006|access-date=18 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140220141212/http://www.standard.co.uk/news/the-family-that-inspired-hit-tv-series-the-darling-buds-of-may-7215987.html|archive-date=2014-02-20}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| work= The Guardian| date= 26 August 2006 | title = Our family holiday went down in TV history| url= https://www.theguardian.com/weekend/story/0,,1857296,00.html| location= London|access-date=18 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140925085512/http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2006/aug/26/familyandrelationships3|archive-date=2014-09-25}}</ref> Other characters were modelled on friends and acquaintances of Bates, such as Iris Snow (a parody of [[Iris Murdoch]]) and the Brigadier who was modelled on the father of [[John Bayley (writer)|John Bayley]], Murdoch's husband.<ref name="auto">{{cite news| work= The Guardian| date=3 February 2007| title = The Man From Nowhere| url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/feb/03/featuresreviews.guardianreview31| location = London| access-date=30 August 2020}}</ref>

The [[The Darling Buds of May (TV series)|television adaptation]], produced after his death by his son Richard and based on these stories, was a tremendous success. It is also the source of the American movie ''[[The Mating Game (film)|The Mating Game]]''. The ''[[My Uncle Silas]]'' stories were also made into a UK television series from 2000 to 2003. Many other stories were adapted to TV and others to movies, the most renowned being ''[[The Purple Plain]]'' in 1954 and ''[[The Triple Echo]]''; Bates also worked on other movie scripts. In 2020 ITV commissioned a new television series of The Darling Buds of May, with the title [[The Larkins (2021 TV series)|The Larkins]] starring [[Bradley Walsh]], [[Joanna Scanlan]], [[Sabrina Bartlett]] and [[Tok Stephen]].<ref name="auto1">{{cite web|url=https://hebates.com/writing/the-larkins|title=The Larkins Homepage :: HE Bates|website=hebates.com}}</ref> The first episode aired in October 2021.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/the-larkins-cast-characters-itv/|title=Meet the cast and characters of The Larkins|website=Radio Times}}</ref>

==Personal life==
In 1931, he married Madge Cox, who lived two streets away from him in his native Rushden. They moved to the village of [[Little Chart]] in [[Kent]] and bought an old granary and this together with an acre of garden they converted into a home. Bates was a keen and knowledgeable gardener who wrote many books on flowers. The Granary remained their home for the whole of their married life.

They had two sons and two daughters: Ann, Judith, Richard and Jonathan. [[Jonathan Bates]] was nominated for an [[Academy Award]] for his sound work on the 1982 movie ''[[Gandhi (film)|Gandhi]]''.<ref name="guardian.co.uk">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/dec/03/obituary-jonathan-bates-sound-editor |title= Obituary: Jonathan Bates | access-date= 9 October 2011|work= The Guardian|location= London | first= Mick | last = Monks |date=3 December 2008}}</ref> Richard became a television producer, Bates's granddaughter, [[Victoria Wicks]] is an actress and script consultant.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0061017/|title=Richard Bates|website=IMDb}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0927002/|title=Victoria Wicks|website=IMDb}}</ref>

==Death and honours==
Bates died on 29 January 1974 in [[Canterbury]], Kent, aged 68. A prolific and successful author, his greatest success was posthumous, with the television [[The Darling Buds of May (TV series)|adaptations]] of his stories ''The Darling Buds of May'' and its sequels as well as adaptations of ''My Uncle Silas'', ''[[A Moment in Time (novel)|A Moment in Time]]'', ''[[Fair Stood the Wind for France]]'' and ''[[Love for Lydia]]''. In his home town of Rushden, H.E. Bates has a road named after him to the west of the town, leading to the local leisure centre. His archive is held at the [[Harry Ransom Center]] at the [[University of Texas at Austin]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=H. E. (Herbert Ernest) Bates |url=https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadID=01411 |access-date=2022-08-26 |website=norman.hrc.utexas.edu}}</ref> After Bates' death Madge moved to a bungalow, which had originally been a cow [[byre]], next to the Granary. She died in 2004 at the age of 95.

== Bibliography ==
{{Col-begin}}
{{Col-break}}

===Novels===
* ''[[The Two Sisters (novel)|The Two Sisters]]'' (1926)
* ''Catherine Foster'' (1929)
* ''Charlotte's Row'' (1931)
* ''The Fallow Land'' (1932)
* ''The Poacher'' (1935)
* ''A House of Women'' (1936)
* ''Spella Ho'' (1938)
* ''[[Fair Stood the Wind for France]]'' (1944)
* ''[[The Cruise of the Breadwinner]]'' (1946)
* ''[[The Purple Plain (novel)|The Purple Plain]]'' (1947)
* ''Dear Life'' (1949)
* ''The Jacaranda Tree'' (1949)
* ''The Scarlet Sword'' (1950)
* ''The Grass God'' (1951)
* ''[[Love for Lydia]]'' (1952)
* ''The [[Feast of July]]'' (1954)
* ''The Sleepless Moon'' (1956)
* ''A Crown of Wild Myrtle'' (1962)
* ''[[A Moment in Time (novel)|A Moment in Time]]'' (1964)
* ''The Distant Horns of Summer'' (1967)
* ''[[The Triple Echo (novel)|The Triple Echo]]'' (1970)

====Pop Larkin series====
* ''[[The Darling Buds of May (novel)|The Darling Buds of May]]'' (1958)
* ''[[A Breath of French Air]]'' (1959)
* ''[[When the Green Woods Laugh]]'' (1960)
* ''Oh! To be in England'' (1963)
* ''A Little of What You Fancy'' (1970)

===Short stories===
* ''The Seekers'' (1926)
* ''The Spring Song and in View of the Fact That'' (1927)
* ''Day's End'' (1928)
* ''Alexander'' (1929)
* ''The Tree'' (1930)
* ''The Hessian Prisoner'' (1930)
* ''A Threshing Day for Esther'' (1930)
* ''Charlotte Esmond'' (1930) Republished as ''Mrs Esmond's Life'' (1931)
* ''A German Idyll'' (1932)
* ''Sally Go Round the Moon'' (1932)
* ''The Black Boxer'' (1932)
* ''The Story Without an End'' (1932)
* ''The House with the Apricot'' (1933)
* ''Time'' (1933)
* ''The Lily'' (1933)
* ''The Woman who had Imagination'' (1934)
* ''The Duet'' (1935)
* ''The Mill'' (1935)
* ''The Ox'' (1939)
* ''I Am Not Myself'' (1939)
* ''The Beauty of the Dead'' (1940)
* ''The Bride Comes to Evensford'' (1943)
* ''Colonel Julien'' (1951)
* ''The Delicate Nature'' (1953)
* ''Dulcima'' (1953)
* ''The Nature of Love'' (1953)
* ''The Daffodil Sky'' (1955)
* ''Summer in Salander'' (1955)
* ''The Grapes of Paradise'' (1956)
* ''The Queen of Spain Fritillary'' (1956)
* ''Death of a Huntsman'' (1957)
* ''A Great Day for Bonzo'' (1957)
* ''A Month by the Lake'' (1957)
* ''Night Run to the West'' (1957)
* ''A Prospect of Orchards'' (1957)
* ''The White Wind'' (1957)
* ''An Aspidistra in Babylon'' (1959)
* ''The Watercress Girl'' (1959)
* ''Mr Featherstone Takes a Ride'' (1961)
* ''Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal'' (1961)
* ''The Day of the Tortoise'' (1961)
* ''The Ring of Truth'' (1961)
* ''The Quiet Girl'' (1962)
* ''The World is Too Much With Us'' (1962)
* ''The Fabulous Mrs V'' (1964)
* ''The Simple Life'' (1967)
* ''The Chords of Youth'' (1968)
* ''The Four Beauties'' (1968)
* ''The White Admiral'' (1968)
* ''The Dam'' (1971)
* ''The Man Who Loved Squirrels'' (1971)
* ''The Song of the Wren'' (1972)
* ''The Yellow Meads of Asphodel'' (1976){{Col-break}}

===Short story collections===
* ''Day's End and Other Stories'' (1928)
* ''Seven Tales and Alexander'' (1929)
* ''The Black Boxer Tales'' (1932)
* ''The Woman Who Had Imagination and Other Stories'' (1934)
* ''Thirty Tales'' (1934)
* ''Cut and Come Again'' (1935)
* ''Something Short and Sweet'' (1937)
* ''Country Tales'' (1938)
* ''The Flying Goat'' (1939)
* ''The Beauty of the Dead and Other Stories'' (1940)
* ''Thirty-One Selected Tales'' (1947)
* ''The Bride Comes to Evensford and Other Tales'' (1949)
* ''Colonel Julian and Other Stories'' (1951)
* ''Twenty Tales'' (1951)
* ''Selected Short Stories of H.E. Bates'' (1951)
* ''The Daffodil Sky'' (1955)
* ''Selected Stories'' (1957)
* ''The Watercress Girl'' (1959)
* ''An Aspidistra in Babylon'' (1960)
* ''Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal and Other Stories'' (1961)
* ''The Golden Oriole'' (1962)
* ''Seven by Five'' (1963)
* ''The Fabulous Mrs V'' (1964)
* ''The Wedding Party'' (1965)
* ''The Wild Cherry Tree'' (1968)
* ''The Song of the Wren'' (1972)
* ''The Good Corn and other Stories'' (1974)
* ''A Party for the Girls'' (1988)
* ''Love in a Wych Elm and Other Stories'' (2009)

====Uncle Silas series====
* ''[[My Uncle Silas]]'' (1939)
* ''Sugar for the Horse'' (1957)

====Flying Officer X series====
* ''The Greatest People in the World and Other Stories'' (1942)
* ''How Sleep the Brave and Other Stories'' (1943)
* ''Something in the Air'' (1944)
* ''The Stories of Flying Officer 'X''' (1952)

===Drama===
* ''The Last Bread'' (1926) (a play in one act)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hebatescompanion.com/node/328|title=The Last Bread, A Play in One Act. &#124; H.E. Bates Companion|website=hebatescompanion.com}}</ref><ref>{{Google books|id = iN0lHAAACAAJ | title = The Last Bread, A Play in One Act}}</ref>
* ''The Day of Glory'' (1945) (a play in three acts)<ref>{{Google books|id = eyRKAAAAMAAJ | title = The Day of Glory - A Play in Three Acts}}</ref>

===Essays and non-fiction===
* ''Flowers and Faces'' (1935)
* ''Through the Woods'' (1936)
* ''Down the River'' (1937)
* ''The Seasons & The Gardener'' (1940)
* ''In the Heart of the Country'' (1942)
* ''O More Than Happy Countryman'' (1943)
* ''War Pictures by British Artists'' (1943)
* ''Country Life'' (1943)
* ''There's Freedom in the Air'' (1944)
* ''The W.A.A.F in Action'' (1944)
* ''Flying Bombs over England'' (1945) Also published as "The Battle of the Flying Bomb."
* ''The Tinkers of Elstow'' (1946)
* ''The Country Heart'' (1949)
* ''Fawley Achievement'' (1951)
* ''The Country of White Clover'' (1952)
* ''Edward Garnett'' (1950)
* ''A Love of Flowers'' (1971)
* ''A Fountain of Flowers'' (1974)

===Criticism===
* ''The Modern Short Story'' (1942)

===Books for children===
* ''The Seekers'' (1926)
* ''The Seasons & The Gardener'' (1940)
* ''Achilles the Donkey'' (1962)
* ''Achilles and Diana'' (1963)
* ''Achilles and the Twins'' (1964)
* ''The White Admiral'' (1968)

===Autobiography===
* ''The Vanished World'' (1969)
* ''The Blossoming World'' (1971)
* ''The World in Ripeness'' (1972){{col-end}}

==References to H.E. Bates==
* Bates's novel ''[[Love for Lydia]]'' served as an inspiration for [[Donna Lewis]]'s 1996 smash hit "[[I Love You Always Forever]]".<ref>{{cite web|last1=Crowe|first1=Jerry|title=Runner Up Donna Lewis' 'I Love You Always Forever' Is Stuck at No. 2 on Billboard Chart Behind A Certain Dance Song|url=http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1996/oct/16/runner-up-donna-lewis-i-love-you-always-forever/|website=The Spokesman-Review|access-date=25 November 2016}}</ref>
* Literary study of his works: Dennis Vannatta, ''H.E. Bates'' (Twayne's English Authors Series). Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1983. {{ISBN|0-8057-6844-0}}
* Bates' idyllic depiction of rural Britain is referred to by the character 'I' in cult British comedy ''[[Withnail & I]]''
* His short story 'The Mill' featured as the extract in the first paper of the [[AQA]] English Language [[GCSE]] in 2019.

==Notes==
{{Reflist |25em}}
* Eads, Peter, 1990, H.E.BATES, A Bibliographical Study, [[St. Paul's Bibliographies]], Winchester, Hampshire, Omnigraphics, Detroit 1990 {{ISBN|0 906795 76 1}}

* * Eads, Peter, 2007, H.E.BATES, A Bibliographical Study, [[Oak Knoll Books and Press|Oak Knoll Press]] & British Library, {{ISBN|978-1-58456-215-3}} (Oak Knoll Press) {{ISBN|978-0-7123-5003-7}} (The British Library)

* Eads, Peter, 1990, Give Them Their Life, The Poetry of H.E. Bates, Evensford Productions Ltd, {{ISBN|0 9516754 0 0}}

* Eads, Peter, 1995, The Life and Times of H.E.Bates, Northamptonshire County Council Libraries and Information Service, {{ISBN|0-905391-17-9}}

==External links==
* [https://hebates.com HE Bates] (HEBates.com)
* [https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadID=01411 H. E. Bates Papers] at the [[Harry Ransom Center]]
* [http://www.thevanishedworld.co.uk/ The Vanished World of H. E. Bates] (TheVanishedWorld.co.uk)
* {{IMDb name|id=0060914|name=H.E. Bates}}
* {{Find a Grave|4054|H.E. Bates}}
* {{LCAuth|n79149076|H. E. Bates|165|ue}}

{{H. E. Bates}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bates, H. E.}}
[[Category:1905 births]]
[[Category:1974 deaths]]
[[Category:English nature writers]]
[[Category:English short story writers]]
[[Category:People from Rushden]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire|Bates, Herbert Ernest]]
[[Category:20th-century English novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century British short story writers]]
[[Category:People from Little Chart]]
[[Category:Royal Air Force personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Royal Air Force officers]]