H.E. Bates

[Howard]

Just finished an excellent novel, Love for Lydia, by H.E. Bates, a writer who may perhaps be less highly regarded than he once was, being mainly associated these days with the comic Larkin family novels, which were made into the popular Darling Buds of May TV series of some years back. I must confess I've never read the Larkin books, being more attracted to his "serious" work. Years ago, I read his 1944 novel Fair Stood the Wind for France, which Henry Miller said was the one good book he had ever read about World War II - pitching it a bit high, I think, but it is an excellent book, and quite beautifully written (still available as a Penguin Modern Classic, I think). I've also read a collection of his short stories, which strike me as often remarkable, especially the earlier ones, from the 20's and 30's: some of the later stories, admittedly of the few I've read - he wrote hundreds - suggest his work got cosier and more conventional as he went along (the Larkin books may fit into that vein). The early stories that I've read are passionate, often tragic works, sometimes surprisingly erotic, written in a supple, rhythmical prose that's a pleasure in itself. Graham Greene, referring specifically to the short stories, called Bates "the English Chekhov". He reminds me more of D. H. Lawrence - similar settings (Midlands industrial towns and their surrounding countryside) and a similar almost pantheistic response to the natural world - but without Lawrence's preachiness and philosophising. Is anyone else out there a Bates fan?

[Stewart]

Originally Posted by Howard

. Fair Stood the Wind for France, (still available as a Penguin Modern Classic, I think).

It most certainly is, recently relaunched in the new white style. I've picked it up a few times with the intention of giving it a new home. Perhaps I should make that move permanent.

I had a go at one of his books (The Feast of July) last year but wasn't in the frame of mind for it. Methuen in the UK have been relaunching his books in recent times, with about six or seven out now. I picked them up because they were in a style similar to those of Richard Yates whose popularity in the UK has taken off since those editions came out back in 2001.

[Howard]

Yes, it's nice to see that Methuen have been risssuing some of the novels, and the covers are quite nice. I tend to pick them up second-hand, as and when I find them, in the old Penguin editions from the 70s or 80s, even though the covers are truly ghastly, because the format makes them much easier to carry around.