H. E. Bates H. E. Bates Herbert Ernest Bates, CBE (16 May 1905 – 29 January 1974), better known as H.E. Bates, was an English writer and author. His best-known works include "Love for Lydia", "The Darling Buds of May", and "My Uncle Silas". H.E. Bates was born on 16 May 1905 in Rushden, Northamptonshire, and educated at Kettering Grammar School. After leaving school, he worked as a reporter and a warehouse clerk. Many of his stories depict life in the rural Midlands of England, particularly his native Northamptonshire. Bates was partial to taking long walks around the Northamptonshire countryside and this often
Fair Stood the Wind for France Fair Stood the Wind for France Fair Stood the Wind for France is a novel written by English author H. E. Bates. The novel was first published in 1944 and was Bates's first financial success. The title comes from the first line of "Agincourt", a poem by Michael Drayton (1563–1631). The story concerns John Franklin, the pilot of a Wellington bomber, who badly injures his arm when he crash-lands the aircraft in German-occupied France during the Second World War. He and his crew make their way to an isolated farmhouse and are taken in by the family of a French