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The wild cherry tree
First published in 1968, The Wild Cherry Tree is a late collection of ten tales including comic vignettes, a humorous celebration of the sensual life, and several explorations of love, loneliness, and problematic relationships.
'The Wild Cherry Tree' sees the wife of a pig-farmer who dresses like a 'shabby, straddling scarecrow' as she tends her pigs by day, but, alone in the evenings, adorns herself in exotic clothes and jewels without leaving the house. That is until one day, when she has to deal with the consequences.
'Same Time, Same Place' follows an impoverished spinster and a lonely bachelor who become friends, but when he drunkenly and clumsily proposes to her she avoids him, denying herself 'the possibility of friendship with a man who genuinely likes her.'
'The First Day of Christmas' observes a man with his lover on a festive evening out, surrounded by fellow drinkers and full of saucy dialogue, who is torn between asking her hand and burying his grief in drink.
'The Black Magnolia' celebrates the sensual life in a farce involving two voluptuous and liberated women and a repressed, tee-total bachelor.
The bonus story 'A Waddler' is Bates's first published story, and is a village sketch with colourful dialogue. It follows a man as he deals with the death of his overly critical wife, as he is conversely complimented by a fellow widow on carrying his grief so well.
'The Wild Cherry Tree' sees the wife of a pig-farmer who dresses like a 'shabby, straddling scarecrow' as she tends her pigs by day, but, alone in the evenings, adorns herself in exotic clothes and jewels without leaving the house. That is until one day, when she has to deal with the consequences.
'Same Time, Same Place' follows an impoverished spinster and a lonely bachelor who become friends, but when he drunkenly and clumsily proposes to her she avoids him, denying herself 'the possibility of friendship with a man who genuinely likes her.'
'The First Day of Christmas' observes a man with his lover on a festive evening out, surrounded by fellow drinkers and full of saucy dialogue, who is torn between asking her hand and burying his grief in drink.
'The Black Magnolia' celebrates the sensual life in a farce involving two voluptuous and liberated women and a repressed, tee-total bachelor.
The bonus story 'A Waddler' is Bates's first published story, and is a village sketch with colourful dialogue. It follows a man as he deals with the death of his overly critical wife, as he is conversely complimented by a fellow widow on carrying his grief so well.
219 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1968
7 people are currently reading
77 people want to read
About the author
H.E. Bates
278 books194 followersHerbert Ernest Bates, CBE is widely recognised as one of the finest short story writers of his generation, with more than 20 story collections published in his lifetime. It should not be overlooked, however, that he also wrote some outstanding novels, starting with The Two Sisters through to A Moment in Time, with such works as Love For Lydia, Fair Stood the Wind for France and The Scarlet Sword earning high praise from the critics. His study of the Modern Short Story is considered one of the best ever written on the subject.
He was born in Rushden, Northamptonshire and was educated at Kettering Grammar School. After leaving school, he was briefly a newspaper reporter and a warehouse clerk, but his heart was always in writing and his dream to be able to make a living by his pen.
Many of his stories depict life in the rural Midlands of England, particularly his native Northamptonshire. Bates was partial to taking long midnight walks around the Northamptonshire countryside - and this often provided the inspiration for his stories. Bates was a great lover of the countryside and its people and this is exemplified in two volumes of essays entitled Through the Woods and Down the River.
In 1931, he married Madge Cox, his sweetheart from the next road in his native Rushden. They moved to the village of Little Chart in Kent and bought an old granary and this together with an acre of garden they converted into a home. It was in this phase of his life that he found the inspiration for the Larkins series of novels -The Darling Buds of May, A Breath of French Air, When the Green Woods Laugh, etc. - and the Uncle Silas tales. Not surprisingly, these highly successful novels inspired television series that were immensely popular.
His collection of stories written while serving in the RAF during World War II, best known by the title The Stories of Flying Officer X, but previously published as Something in the Air (a compilation of his two wartime collections under the pseudonym 'Flying Officer X' and titled The Greatest People in the World and How Sleep the Brave), deserve particular attention. By the end of the war he had achieved the rank of Squadron Leader.
Bates was influenced by Chekhov in particular, and his knowledge of the history of the short story is obvious from the famous study he produced on the subject. He also wrote his autobiography in three volumes (each delightfully illustrated) which were subsequently published in a one-volume Autobiography.
Bates was a keen and knowledgeable gardener and wrote numerous books on flowers. The Granary remained their home for the whole of their married life. After the death of H. E Bates, Madge moved to a bungalow, which had originally been a cow byre, next to the Granary. She died in 2004 at age 95. They raised two sons and two daughters.
primarily from Wikipedia, with additions by Keith Farnsworth
He was born in Rushden, Northamptonshire and was educated at Kettering Grammar School. After leaving school, he was briefly a newspaper reporter and a warehouse clerk, but his heart was always in writing and his dream to be able to make a living by his pen.
Many of his stories depict life in the rural Midlands of England, particularly his native Northamptonshire. Bates was partial to taking long midnight walks around the Northamptonshire countryside - and this often provided the inspiration for his stories. Bates was a great lover of the countryside and its people and this is exemplified in two volumes of essays entitled Through the Woods and Down the River.
In 1931, he married Madge Cox, his sweetheart from the next road in his native Rushden. They moved to the village of Little Chart in Kent and bought an old granary and this together with an acre of garden they converted into a home. It was in this phase of his life that he found the inspiration for the Larkins series of novels -The Darling Buds of May, A Breath of French Air, When the Green Woods Laugh, etc. - and the Uncle Silas tales. Not surprisingly, these highly successful novels inspired television series that were immensely popular.
His collection of stories written while serving in the RAF during World War II, best known by the title The Stories of Flying Officer X, but previously published as Something in the Air (a compilation of his two wartime collections under the pseudonym 'Flying Officer X' and titled The Greatest People in the World and How Sleep the Brave), deserve particular attention. By the end of the war he had achieved the rank of Squadron Leader.
Bates was influenced by Chekhov in particular, and his knowledge of the history of the short story is obvious from the famous study he produced on the subject. He also wrote his autobiography in three volumes (each delightfully illustrated) which were subsequently published in a one-volume Autobiography.
Bates was a keen and knowledgeable gardener and wrote numerous books on flowers. The Granary remained their home for the whole of their married life. After the death of H. E Bates, Madge moved to a bungalow, which had originally been a cow byre, next to the Granary. She died in 2004 at age 95. They raised two sons and two daughters.
primarily from Wikipedia, with additions by Keith Farnsworth
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 29, 2015
This collection contains ten stories; there are about three stories that are below ten pages and these are generally the weaker ones but the others, which are about twenty pages long are excellent. I was expecting stories with predominantly rural settings but there is a varied mixture of settings as well as a mixture of character types. The collection kicks off with Halibut Jones, which is set in a rural village. Halibut, whose real name is Albert but as a child couldn't pronounce his name correctly, is a bit of a loveable slacker. The story begins:
The title story has a less idyllic setting than Halibut Jones though it is still semi-rural. Mrs Boorman is married to a pig farmer and spends most of her time knee-deep in mud. When her husband and sons are off drinking in the evening she likes to secretly pamper herself and dress up in fine clothes in an attempt to escape her squalid life. One day she attracts the attention of a car driver who is visiting neighbours of the Boormans. She is wary at first but soon finds the attention appealing.
In The World Upside-down Bates gets even more playful. The story concerns Miss Olive Stratton who has taken to wearing odd-coloured stockings to work in an attempt to get men to notice her legs - but with no effect. One day she notices a man in her train carriage who is reading his newspaper upside-down. It turns out that he's been doing it for years and doesn't even notice himself doing it anymore. Anyway, the rest of the story is about the relationship between these two slightly odd characters; it's funny and a little sad.
One of my favourite stories in this book was How Vainly Men Themselves Amaze; it's set in a French holiday resort where a young man called Franklin is hanging around an attractive woman, Mrs Palgrave, who is sunbathing on the beach. She has a couple of children who are being cared for by Heidi, a young German maid, whom she loathes. Mrs Palgrave seems to like the attention of the young man and she flirts with him. Franklin is a budding photographer and convinces both the mother and Heidi to pose for photographs and then he arranges trysts with Mrs Palgrave and then Heidi. I won't reveal how it ends.
The Black Magnolia is a very funny story. Poor Hartley Spencer, a bachelor of fifty, who has no known vices and spends most of his free-time raising money for various charities gets involved with Vanessa La Farge and her friend Kitty O'Connor. They claim that they want him to help them raise some money for a charity but they spend most of their time amusing themselves at his expense by teasing him mercifully. The women just can't believe that someone like Spencer exists:
The stories in this collection are as near to perfection as is possible. There's a mixture of sad and funny stories; Bates has a brilliant ear for dialogue as well, and unlike many British writers of the period it doesn't grate for the modern reader. Bates doesn't seem interested in class at all so, although the characters can be identified as farmers, middle-class, workers, maids etc. they aren't defined by it and this makes the stories flow quite naturally. He is also very interested in flowers; references and descriptions of flowers crop up in nearly every story, sometimes it's the colours, other times it's the scents whilst in some of the stories characters discuss how to grow them. Bates wrote a hell of a lot of stories, novellas and novels so I'm going to enjoy working my way through his back catalogue and I'll probably read some of the 'Larkin' stories as well.
Halibut Jones lay stretched at full length on top of a dry ditch, staring through the breathless August air at great sprays of blackberries gleaming on the hedgerow above. It had been a very good season for blackberries, a very hot season, and some of the berries were as fat and bloomed as grapes.Halibut decides to see if he can earn some money by selling the blackberries to some local housewives. When he visits Mrs Parkinson she tries to get Halibut to do some other chores such as trimming her privet hedge or cutting down some thistles but he finds reasons why he shouldn't embark on such tasks at that moment. When she wonders if he could catch some trout for her, Halibut claims that he has no hooks and that he'll need to get some fishing line. Mrs Parkinson takes pity on him when she hears him cough and starts supplying him with homemade bread, beer and cheese. He eventually leaves with some apples and an advance on supplying the trout - but it's too hot to go fishing at the moment so he goes off for a bit of a sleep.
The title story has a less idyllic setting than Halibut Jones though it is still semi-rural. Mrs Boorman is married to a pig farmer and spends most of her time knee-deep in mud. When her husband and sons are off drinking in the evening she likes to secretly pamper herself and dress up in fine clothes in an attempt to escape her squalid life. One day she attracts the attention of a car driver who is visiting neighbours of the Boormans. She is wary at first but soon finds the attention appealing.
In The World Upside-down Bates gets even more playful. The story concerns Miss Olive Stratton who has taken to wearing odd-coloured stockings to work in an attempt to get men to notice her legs - but with no effect. One day she notices a man in her train carriage who is reading his newspaper upside-down. It turns out that he's been doing it for years and doesn't even notice himself doing it anymore. Anyway, the rest of the story is about the relationship between these two slightly odd characters; it's funny and a little sad.
One of my favourite stories in this book was How Vainly Men Themselves Amaze; it's set in a French holiday resort where a young man called Franklin is hanging around an attractive woman, Mrs Palgrave, who is sunbathing on the beach. She has a couple of children who are being cared for by Heidi, a young German maid, whom she loathes. Mrs Palgrave seems to like the attention of the young man and she flirts with him. Franklin is a budding photographer and convinces both the mother and Heidi to pose for photographs and then he arranges trysts with Mrs Palgrave and then Heidi. I won't reveal how it ends.
The Black Magnolia is a very funny story. Poor Hartley Spencer, a bachelor of fifty, who has no known vices and spends most of his free-time raising money for various charities gets involved with Vanessa La Farge and her friend Kitty O'Connor. They claim that they want him to help them raise some money for a charity but they spend most of their time amusing themselves at his expense by teasing him mercifully. The women just can't believe that someone like Spencer exists:
For some long time after Hartley Spencer had left the two women sat on the terrace of the house, drinking glasses of cool white Alsatian wine. Now and then Kitty O'Connor's mischievous laughter floated, very like scales of rippling water, into the darkening summer air.Though less funny than The Black Magnolia the stories Same Time, Same Place and The Middle of Nowhere are just as good. Same Time, Same Place is about the elderly Miss Treadwell who is living off a very small income and having to resort to wearing newspapers underneath her coat to keep warm - but she must 'keep up appearances'. The Middle of Nowhere is about the rise and fall of a roadside café.
'Nobody,' she said once, 'can be that good. No one man can have that amount of goodness in him. It isn't human. Even virgins have some vices.'
'I've a deep suspicion that virginity is more painful in the male.'
'Really? And would you care to remove it?'
The stories in this collection are as near to perfection as is possible. There's a mixture of sad and funny stories; Bates has a brilliant ear for dialogue as well, and unlike many British writers of the period it doesn't grate for the modern reader. Bates doesn't seem interested in class at all so, although the characters can be identified as farmers, middle-class, workers, maids etc. they aren't defined by it and this makes the stories flow quite naturally. He is also very interested in flowers; references and descriptions of flowers crop up in nearly every story, sometimes it's the colours, other times it's the scents whilst in some of the stories characters discuss how to grow them. Bates wrote a hell of a lot of stories, novellas and novels so I'm going to enjoy working my way through his back catalogue and I'll probably read some of the 'Larkin' stories as well.
December 9, 2020
This is one of my favourite writers. I found the early stories ordinary but some of the later ones are superb.
8/10
8/10
April 29, 2024
H. E. Bates was an even more prolific short story writer than he was a novelist, and it is his stories that will most inform his long term reputation, or so the author of his ODNB entry believes. I can see how that view has gained traction; his stories are written with effortless grace, humour and a deeply-felt understanding of human relationships. This late collection (1968) is an excellent introduction to his range; there are tales of sensitive men and women trapped in unfulfilling lives, stories of first love and later loves, achingly sad studies of loneliness and exercises in high comedy. All of them are underpinned by lyrical descriptive writing, a light touch and a warm sympathy for the human condition.
November 29, 2018
Of all of the collections of short stories by HE Bates recently, this is the best by far. It is a collection of 10 stories that include the usual characters and twists to the plot. However, each story is different and demonstrate the breadth of the author's imagination. There are many aspects to each of the stories that appealed to me.
I found 'Same Time, Same Place' rather acutely observed. I think that we can all see people keeping up appearances nowadays. There is an interesting study of gentility and decline, and as the population ages, I would imagine that we will see more of it in the future. I've never quite understood why people maintain a facade when it is quite obviously false. This story helped my inderstanding along a little, but I still can't quite see why Miss Treadwell doesn't simply get a job.
The collection is named after a particularly powerful story. I quite liked this one, and I imagine much of it will staty with me. Once again, the theme was people not being quite what they appeared to be. Now that I have reached an age where I become invisible, I can sympathsise with the main character in the story. I liked the way in which the story ended - a question of what might have been. That seems a common trait amongst most of us.
The stories are very well written and very well crafted. At this point, it is evident that HE Bates is a master of his trade. The characters are nicely three dimensional and become established in quite a short space of time. The plot is well developed and moves along at the right pace. I didn't become bogged down and I was keem to keep the story moving. In all, this collection is a fine example of how to write good short stories.
I found 'Same Time, Same Place' rather acutely observed. I think that we can all see people keeping up appearances nowadays. There is an interesting study of gentility and decline, and as the population ages, I would imagine that we will see more of it in the future. I've never quite understood why people maintain a facade when it is quite obviously false. This story helped my inderstanding along a little, but I still can't quite see why Miss Treadwell doesn't simply get a job.
The collection is named after a particularly powerful story. I quite liked this one, and I imagine much of it will staty with me. Once again, the theme was people not being quite what they appeared to be. Now that I have reached an age where I become invisible, I can sympathsise with the main character in the story. I liked the way in which the story ended - a question of what might have been. That seems a common trait amongst most of us.
The stories are very well written and very well crafted. At this point, it is evident that HE Bates is a master of his trade. The characters are nicely three dimensional and become established in quite a short space of time. The plot is well developed and moves along at the right pace. I didn't become bogged down and I was keem to keep the story moving. In all, this collection is a fine example of how to write good short stories.
December 24, 2019
Another covey of short stories by Bates, largely set in rural idylls in the south of England, with one a tale of a holiday on the French coast.
Bates writes of sensory perception in spring and summer like no one I know, it's remarkable how many ways he can define the light, the scents, the colours, the flowers and blooming trees, the lamps of blossom, the sensations of the seasons, the desires of the lonely, shy or frozen. Characters are fully defined too, within such a short space, and I'm sure I'll remember Halibut Jones and Miss Parkinson for some time, or Mrs. Boorman and her passions, or the unnamed displaced father revisiting his family; or quirky Olive Stratton and the stranger Mr Fletcher, Franklin's holiday luck and loss, Archie Burgess's love for Flo, and Hartley Wilkinson Spencer's utter flustering foolishness with Vanessa La Farge and Kitty O'Connor. Or poor old Miss Treadwell, or Francie. But time will tell.
I read his four novellas, The Four Beauties [1968], a companion of the sixties, this summer, and their flavour is still with me. It is this lingering sensorium of his works which stirs the appetite again and turns me to his shelf - yes, H.E. Bates occupies a shelf of his own. It is a shelf of special meaning for me: Bates is not known for his novels, but usually for his myriad short stories. Yet there are gems in each form, his best being Fair Stood The Wind For France [1944], one of several war novels, one of my favourite novels, and The Waterfall [1933], a gorgeous short story in the Country Tales collection, selected as exemplar in The Oxford Book of English Short Stories [1998], one of the best there. If you haven't yet tried H.E. Bates, try those.
Bates writes of sensory perception in spring and summer like no one I know, it's remarkable how many ways he can define the light, the scents, the colours, the flowers and blooming trees, the lamps of blossom, the sensations of the seasons, the desires of the lonely, shy or frozen. Characters are fully defined too, within such a short space, and I'm sure I'll remember Halibut Jones and Miss Parkinson for some time, or Mrs. Boorman and her passions, or the unnamed displaced father revisiting his family; or quirky Olive Stratton and the stranger Mr Fletcher, Franklin's holiday luck and loss, Archie Burgess's love for Flo, and Hartley Wilkinson Spencer's utter flustering foolishness with Vanessa La Farge and Kitty O'Connor. Or poor old Miss Treadwell, or Francie. But time will tell.
I read his four novellas, The Four Beauties [1968], a companion of the sixties, this summer, and their flavour is still with me. It is this lingering sensorium of his works which stirs the appetite again and turns me to his shelf - yes, H.E. Bates occupies a shelf of his own. It is a shelf of special meaning for me: Bates is not known for his novels, but usually for his myriad short stories. Yet there are gems in each form, his best being Fair Stood The Wind For France [1944], one of several war novels, one of my favourite novels, and The Waterfall [1933], a gorgeous short story in the Country Tales collection, selected as exemplar in The Oxford Book of English Short Stories [1998], one of the best there. If you haven't yet tried H.E. Bates, try those.
July 5, 2020
The book is a lyrical collection of ten sensuous short stories that play around the themes of love, lust, longing, loneliness, and much more. The stories are set in various backdrops ranging from a rustic pig-farm to glittery dunes by a french coast.
I believe very few authors can pen down tactile and sensory perceptions so vividly and beautifully and H.E.Bates is a master in this. The clever analogies such as comparing "traffic on the six-track motorway" to "a procession of metallic beetles flashing chromium eyes by the day and white hot feelers of light by night", " a sudden shoal of chestnut leaves freed from the trees like a wild covey of birds across the pond" and many more kept me hooked on to the very end. Each story had intriguing characters and I did feel a sense of connection with them while they strolled through the gardens in spring or waited in a pub or took the same train to work.
However, I did find repetitiveness in the plot development and stories did become somewhat predictable by the end of the book. This is not an intellectually stimulating book that would put readers on the edge of the chair. But if anyone wants to know how words can create magic, this book is highly recommended.
I believe very few authors can pen down tactile and sensory perceptions so vividly and beautifully and H.E.Bates is a master in this. The clever analogies such as comparing "traffic on the six-track motorway" to "a procession of metallic beetles flashing chromium eyes by the day and white hot feelers of light by night", " a sudden shoal of chestnut leaves freed from the trees like a wild covey of birds across the pond" and many more kept me hooked on to the very end. Each story had intriguing characters and I did feel a sense of connection with them while they strolled through the gardens in spring or waited in a pub or took the same train to work.
However, I did find repetitiveness in the plot development and stories did become somewhat predictable by the end of the book. This is not an intellectually stimulating book that would put readers on the edge of the chair. But if anyone wants to know how words can create magic, this book is highly recommended.
February 26, 2025
Another of my re-reads after 45+ years, which only added to my admiration for H.E. Bates writing, and his short stories in particular. This collection of 10 tales of mixed length are hugely enjoyable. Bates manages to portray the lives and thinking of his characters so acutely that it feels the knowledge can only come from personal experience, but the range of people written about here, from a pig farming family to upper middle class idlers by way of down at heal elderly spinsters, means, surely, that he was just a very close observer of humans, their speech, mannerisms, short comings, and longings. One thing that loosely ties all these stories together is a feeling of loneliness, but also for us readers, some trepidation, as Bates doesn’t seem to do happy endings.
Worth a few hours of anybody’s time to read this collection.
Worth a few hours of anybody’s time to read this collection.
April 25, 2018
A nice collection of short stories exploring sexual, physical intimacy or patterns of thought and behavior. Bates paints vivid environments that are captured in time. Good characters and interesting plots, however it appears to me that Bates uses similar development and character flaws throughout many of his short stories. By the last few stories, many of the developments were very predictable and expected. Expect some sort of per-chance romance and then an abrupt halt leading to discontentment and wistful longing. A gentle light read that prods into human behavior and desires in raw and ridiculous ways.
August 7, 2019
For my money, H.E.Bates is the best short story writer in the English language.
April 30, 2025
excellent short story collection
June 30, 2014
A collection of quirky stymied love stOries. One of the few collections that I have reread
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews