H. E. Bates

English novelist and master of the short story, H. E. BATES has had a loyal readership both here and abroad. In his best work, nature is a force hauntingly present, wherever the story takes place. This is particularly true of his must recent novel. The Sleepless Moon, and of his new collection of short stories, The Daffodil Sky, to be published this month by AtlanticLittle, Brown. In the following essay he tells how he reclaimed a grove of chestnuts, beeches, and oaks, which had been ravished by time, weather, and the greed of men.

An English novelist who, like Arnold Bennett, came from the Midlands, and who now lives in Kent, H. E. BATES has had a wide reading on both sides of the Atlantic with his novel Fair Stood the Wind for France, a story of British fivers forced doten in occupied territory; with his books about Burma and Kashmir (lhe Purple Plain and The Scarlet Sword); and last year with his novel of contemporary England. Love for Lydia. Recently Mr. Bates has been visiting the West Indies gathering source material for a new history of the Islands, and on his return he paused at Boston to correct the proofs oj this story.

Novelist and master of the short story, H. E. BATES was attached to the Royal Air Force during the Second World War; and the short stories which he wrote at that time under the signature of Flying Officer X had an enormous reading in England. His new collection, Colonel Julian and Other Stories, from which we have drawn the poignant narrative which follows, will appear as an Atlantic-Little, Brown book in early October.