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H. E. Bates | |
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| Born | Herbert Ernest Bates (1905-05-16)16 May 1905 Rushden,Northamptonshire, England |
| Died | 29 January 1974(1974-01-29) (aged 68) Canterbury,Kent, England |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Language | English |
| Citizenship | United Kingdom |
| Genre | Novels, short stories |
| Notable works | Love for Lydia,The Darling Buds of May,My Uncle Silas,Fair Stood the Wind for France |
Herbert Ernest BatesCBE (16 May 1905 – 29 January 1974), better known asH. E. Bates, was an English writer of novels and short stories. His best-known works includeLove for Lydia,The Darling Buds of May andMy Uncle Silas.
Herbert Ernest Bates was born on 16 May 1905 inRushden,Northamptonshire, and educated atKettering Grammar School. After school, he worked as a reporter and a warehouse clerk.[1]
Bates's best-known works are set in the English countryside, particularly theMidlands including his nativeNorthamptonshire and the 'Garden of England',Kent, the setting forThe 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 andDown the River; both have been reprinted numerous times. Several of Bates's works, suchThe Bride Comes to Evensford andLove for Lydia, are set in the fictional town of Evensford, which is based on Bates's hometown, Rushden.[2]
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, was inspired by one of his midnight walks, which took him to the small village ofFarndish. There, late at night, he saw a light burning in a cottage window which triggered the story.[3] He was working briefly for the local newspaper inWellingborough, 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 untilJonathan Cape accepted it on the advice of its respectedreader,Edward Garnett.[4] Bates was then twenty years old. More novels, collections of short stories, essays, and articles followed, but did not pay well.
During World War II, he was commissioned into theRoyal Air Force solely to write short stories. TheAir Ministry realised that it might create more favourable public sentiment by emphasizing stories about the people fighting the war, rather than facts. The stories were published originally in theNews Chronicle with the pseudonym "Flying Officer X". Later they were published in book form asThe Greatest People in the World and Other Stories andHow Sleep the Brave and Other Stories. His first financial success wasFair Stood the Wind for France. After a posting to the Far East, this was followed by two novels about Burma,The Purple Plain in 1947 andThe Jacaranda Tree (published in 1949), and one set in India,The Scarlet Sword (published in 1950).[5][6]
He was also commissioned by the Air Ministry to writeThe Battle of the Flying Bomb, but because of various disagreements[vague] within the government, it was cancelled, and then publication was banned[why?] for 30 years. It was published during 1994 with the titleFlying Bombs over England.[7] Another commission which has still to be published isNight Interception Battle concerning the difficulty of tracking enemy aircraft at night.[8]
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 includedThe Feast of July andLove for Lydia. His most popular creation was the Larkin family inThe 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.[9][10] Other characters were modelled on friends and acquaintances of Bates, such as Iris Snow (a parody ofIris Murdoch) and the Brigadier who was modelled on the father ofJohn Bayley, Murdoch's husband.[11]
Thetelevision 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 movieThe Mating Game. TheMy 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 beingThe Purple Plain in 1954 andThe Triple Echo; Bates also worked on other movie scripts. In 2020 ITV commissioned a new television series ofThe Darling Buds of May, with the titleThe Larkins starringBradley Walsh,Joanna Scanlan,Sabrina Bartlett andTok Stephen.[12] The first episode aired in October 2021.[13]
In 1931, he married Madge Cox, who lived two streets away from him in his native Rushden. They moved to the village ofLittle 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 anAcademy Award for his sound work on the 1982 movieGandhi.[14] Richard became a television producer, Bates's granddaughter,Victoria Wicks, is an actress and script consultant.[15][16]
Bates died of Kidney failure on 29 January 1974 inCanterbury, Kent, aged 68. A prolific and successful author, his greatest success was posthumous, with the televisionadaptations of his storiesThe Darling Buds of May and its sequels as well as adaptations ofMy Uncle Silas,A Moment in Time,Fair Stood the Wind for France andLove for Lydia. In his home town of Rushden, Bates has a road named after him, leading to the leisure centre. His archive is held at theHarry Ransom Center at theUniversity of Texas at Austin.[17] After Bates's death Madge moved to a bungalow, which had originally been a cowbyre, next to the Granary. She died in 2004 at the age of 95.
Novels[edit]
Pop Larkin series[edit]
Short stories[edit]
| Short story collections[edit]
Novels and short stories collection[edit]
Uncle Silas series[edit]
Flying Officer X series[edit]
Drama[edit]Essays and non-fiction[edit]
Criticism[edit]
Books for children[edit]
Autobiography[edit]
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