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
The Darling Buds of May (novel) Miss Pilchester, she responds, "Do her good. Make her sleep all the sweeter." In the first novella, Pop, Ma, and Mariette Larkin attempt to beguile Cedric Charlton, a timid and naive tax inspector, into abandoning his investigation of their finances. Their ultimate goal is for Mariette, who is secretly pregnant at the age of seventeen, to marry "Charley" and thus provide a father for her baby. Ultimately Mariette develops true feelings for Charley and they do become engaged. Charley is never told of the pregnancy, which turns out to be a false alarm. The novel was loosely adapted into the