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,...

�Home looks nice. Allus does though, don�t it? Perfick� And so the Larkins � Pop, Ma, Mariette, Zinnia, Petunia, Primrose, Victoria and Montgomery � return from an outing for fish and chips and ice cream one May evening. There, amid the rustic charms of home, they discover a visitor: one Cedric Charlton, Her Majesty�s inspector of taxes. Mr Charlton is visiting to find out why junk-dealer Pop hasn�t paid his tax � but nothing�s that simple at the Larkins. Mariette takes a shine to �Charley� � as Pop calls him � and before long the family have introduced the uncomplaining inspector to the delights of country living: the lusty scents of wild flowers, the pleasures of a bottle of Dragon�s Blood, cold cream dribbled over a bowl of strawberries and hot, hot summer nights. In fact, soon Charley can�t see any reason to return to the office at all �

�There!� Pop said. �There�s the house. There�s Gore Court for you. What about that, eh? How�s that strike you? Better than St Paul�s, ain�t it, better than St Paul�s?� And so Pop Larkin � junk-dealer, family man and Dragon�s Blood connoisseur � manages to sell the nearby crumbling, tumbling country home to city dwellers Mr and Mrs Jerebohm for a pretty bundle of notes. Now he can build his daughter Mariette the pool she�s long been nagging him for. But the Larkin�s new neighbours aren�t quite so accepting of country ways � especially 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 �

The Flying Officer X stories were written by Bates in his unprecedented role as an official war writer with the R.A.F. during WWII, where he animates the realities faced by pilots tasked with protecting the skies from enemy aircraft. The resulting stories that appeared under the pseudonym Flying Officer X are portraits of individual pilots narrated by an observer who, like Bates, is on the inside of the air force without being a pilot. These portraits recount the personal history of the pilots, and convey the individual qualities and forces that motivate them. They blend the action and suspense of aerial battles, friendships cut off too soon, and life enduring against all odds. In true Bates style, the New York Times noted "These are tales told in impressive quiet, tales that are innocent of even the suggestion of flagrant heroism that colors so many stories about combat pilots."Bloomsbury Reader is excited to collect these...

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...

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...

The Daffodil Sky, first published in 1955 (Michael Joseph), mixes eclectic characters travelling to foreign lands with poetic treatments of rural life in Bates's Northamptonshire. 'A Place in the Heart' is set in Asia against a colourful backdrop of rickshaws and ceremonial drumming. An Englishman, shortly before returning home, romances a local girl in this tale of lost love when his inarticulate and flippant goodbye is achingly contrasted with her disappointment.Closer to home, 'The Evolution of Saxby', one of Bates's best-known stories, concerns a cold, controlling woman who buys, decorates and sells one house after another. Challenging this notion of constant movement and progress is her sweet but helpless husband, who wants only to settle down and garden in a place to call home.The Times noted that "there is no better writer of straightforward short stories...Mr. Bates writes simply; his instinct is a deep compassion." This...

When John Franklin brings his plane down into Occupied France at the height of the Second World war, there are two things in his mind - the safety of his crew and his own badly injured arm. It is a stroke of unbelievable luck when the family of a French farmer risk their lives to offer the airmen protection. During the hot summer weeks that follow, the English officer and the daughter of the house are drawn inexorably to each other...

In this collection of five novellas, Bates contrasts two comic stories with the atmospheric title story, and includes a complex psychological tale alongside the romantically bleak.'The Golden Oriole' features a fragile and troubled woman, frozen in a stultifying and unconsummated marriage, who finds her sensuality awakened by a virile admirer. In 'The Ring of Truth', a man seeks to understand a disturbing and recurring dream, learns the truth about the lives and marriage of his parents, and in the process falls in love.'The Quiet Girl' sees an isolated seamstress selfishly juggle two passionless affairs, only to fall in love with a man who is just interested in superficial romance.'Mr Featherstone Takes a Ride' is a comic story featuring an amoral and easy-going swindler and an innocent hitchhiking philosophy student. And 'The World is Too Much With Us' is another comic tale about a reclusive man and a hen, who live together in domestic...

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',...

The Wedding Party, first published in 1965 (Michael Joseph), is a collection of short stories evoking both the dark and light, and the comedy and tragedy in human nature. Bates employs a deceptive delicateness of touch in his descriptions and character sketches, here mastering the true essentials of the art of the short story; he says much by saying little, what is left out more poignant than the words on the page.With a host of larger than life characters, we meet the scheming and eccentric Aunt Leonora, who fibs her way through the comic tale 'The Picnic'. The collection also unites two loveable rogues Captain Poopdeck and Uncle Silas, and brings us the farcical tale 'Early One Morning' which provide a sharp contrast with the sombre and haunting tones of pieces like 'The Primrose Place' and 'The Winter Sound', and the lyrical but bitter episode of 'The Wedding Party' itself.

First published in 1961, Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal and Other Stories is a collection full of light and shade, setting sensitive character studies against Bates's signature vibrant, delicate imagery. A fussy and obsessive golfer encounters a troubled young woman at a wind-swept beach in 'Lost Ball', a retired Colonel, isolated and suffering from dementia, suddenly rejects the friendship of his charming neighbour when she acquires a television in 'Where the Cloud Breaks'.The title story, 'Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal,' takes its name from a Tennyson poem and is a picture of social change in post-war rural England. It draws a portrait of a sheltered and uncultured butcher's wife exposed to a new tenant in the countryside – a flamboyant homosexual who delights in throwing large parties. Of the collection as a whole, the Times Literary Supplement says the stories 'all confirm Mr Bates's position in the first rank of contemporary short-story...