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Castle in the Air
Visiting his aunt's pub is normally a waiting game, sitting outside to avoid the musty smell of beer and bacca. But when old Smiler takes a seat beside him, sucking in pint after pint through his gingery whiskers, a whole new world of battles and bones opens up before him…
H. E. Bates – a prolific English novelist and short story writer – wrote 'Castle in the Air' for The Evening News in 1957, but the story was never re-printed in any of his later collections. In fact, its existence was forgotten until 2013 when it was spotted accidentally during a rummage through a newspaper archive. On re-discovering this charming and humorous short story – which exemplifies H.E. Bates's great skill of drawing vivid characters and his ability to create an almost tangible sense of a place – Bates's descendants felt it had to be shared with a wider audience.
Bloomsbury Reader is delighted to be re-publishing 'Castle in the Air' alongside the whole body of H. E. Bates's short fiction and novellas, and here we offer it as a free taste of Bates's irresistible writing.
H. E. Bates – a prolific English novelist and short story writer – wrote 'Castle in the Air' for The Evening News in 1957, but the story was never re-printed in any of his later collections. In fact, its existence was forgotten until 2013 when it was spotted accidentally during a rummage through a newspaper archive. On re-discovering this charming and humorous short story – which exemplifies H.E. Bates's great skill of drawing vivid characters and his ability to create an almost tangible sense of a place – Bates's descendants felt it had to be shared with a wider audience.
Bloomsbury Reader is delighted to be re-publishing 'Castle in the Air' alongside the whole body of H. E. Bates's short fiction and novellas, and here we offer it as a free taste of Bates's irresistible writing.
16 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 14, 2015
35 people are currently reading
120 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 - 20 of 20 reviews
February 21, 2019
I downloaded this to get a taste of Bates and see if I might want to read some other of his work. It was perfectly fine, but I just felt there wasn't anything to it. I did not like the image of the old man, he seemed like a drunkard and a wastral to me, without much else to recommend him. I would not have wanted my child sitting outside with him while he swilled his beer. I was unsure what point was meant to be made, other than children seeing people differently, and more kindly, than adults.
Not in any hurry to read more of his work at this point.
Not in any hurry to read more of his work at this point.
June 22, 2022
Short, evocative, just the surprise for a first-day-of-summer read.
May 20, 2020
A brief but colourful short story unknown to Bates lovers until found by the family in 2013, published here as an E-book for the first time.
With typical Bates aplomb, we are connected to the land by the path through the spinney, the rustic pub and its partisans, and the tale of old Smiler, himself a gypsy of the land, who describes the old motte and bailey castle imagined from the rounded hill-top in view from outside the pub, the castle in the air, the boy's imagination of battles already fired in his mind as he wends his way to his aunt's pub across the great plain of a meadow.
But it's not the castle that's the key tone of the story, it's old Smiler hisself, and the boy's aunt and grandfolk who epitomise the scurrilous gossip and disapproval of folk confined to a virtual hamlet existence, bedding the tale in the deep past, the past of Lark Rise To Candleford and Cider With Rosie, a rustic time almost disappeared. The flavour of the beer is as mouth-watering as the noxious smells of the old man are foul, and so much is bursting into life in a story but a handful of pages long.
One of the free Bloomsbury Reader E-books available in their recent release of the intended full portfolio of H.E. Bates, our most undervalued but one of our finest novelists. He wrote over 300 short stories and novellas, around 30 novels, and a clutch of non-fiction, including his own three-volume autobiography. Everything I read by him I love, especially his earlier war stories (Fair Stood The Wind For France [1944], The Purple Plain [1947], The Jacaranda Tree [1949], The Scarlet Sword [1950]), which I adore, and which includes one of my favourite novels, Fair Stood The Wind For France. I know who'll be collecting the lot.
With typical Bates aplomb, we are connected to the land by the path through the spinney, the rustic pub and its partisans, and the tale of old Smiler, himself a gypsy of the land, who describes the old motte and bailey castle imagined from the rounded hill-top in view from outside the pub, the castle in the air, the boy's imagination of battles already fired in his mind as he wends his way to his aunt's pub across the great plain of a meadow.
But it's not the castle that's the key tone of the story, it's old Smiler hisself, and the boy's aunt and grandfolk who epitomise the scurrilous gossip and disapproval of folk confined to a virtual hamlet existence, bedding the tale in the deep past, the past of Lark Rise To Candleford and Cider With Rosie, a rustic time almost disappeared. The flavour of the beer is as mouth-watering as the noxious smells of the old man are foul, and so much is bursting into life in a story but a handful of pages long.
One of the free Bloomsbury Reader E-books available in their recent release of the intended full portfolio of H.E. Bates, our most undervalued but one of our finest novelists. He wrote over 300 short stories and novellas, around 30 novels, and a clutch of non-fiction, including his own three-volume autobiography. Everything I read by him I love, especially his earlier war stories (Fair Stood The Wind For France [1944], The Purple Plain [1947], The Jacaranda Tree [1949], The Scarlet Sword [1950]), which I adore, and which includes one of my favourite novels, Fair Stood The Wind For France. I know who'll be collecting the lot.
September 22, 2015
This was free to download to publicise the fact that Bloomsbury are publishing all of H E Bates short stories as e-books. I'd not read any before (although I watched The Darling Buds of May when it was on telly years ago) so I thought it'd see what I thought.
It's ok - not much in the way of story, well-drawn characters and a strong sense of place and time. I can't say it's inspired me to read any more H E Bates though.
It's ok - not much in the way of story, well-drawn characters and a strong sense of place and time. I can't say it's inspired me to read any more H E Bates though.
September 24, 2017
An entertaining short story.
April 6, 2018
My first read of this Author, not quite sure what I made of this one .. Will have to read another ..
March 19, 2018
The only work of H.E. Bates which I have read to date is The Darling Buds of May, which I enjoyed, but not as much as I thought I would. I downloaded this free Kindle book to see whether I wanted to buy any of Bates' short story collections, and to see how this compared to his novel. Bates was a prolific short story author, who was often compared to Chekhov in his heyday. The Castle in the Air was fine; a little brief, I felt, as more could have been made of the main themes. Whilst it is easy to read, and nice enough, it has not inspired me to read any more of Bates' work; not in the near future, anyway.
March 19, 2018
Very much in the style of the incomparable Uncle Silas tales, in that Bates uses the point of view of a youngish boy, inquisitive, full of wonder but just beginning to realise that things may not be as they seem. This tale was lost for over 50 years, and airs the well-trodden and well-loved themes of poaching, drinking, roguery and the battle of the sexes. Lovely story
April 15, 2016
Read some HE Bates when I was younger, and dipped in again with this short story. Yeah, it was OK, but there was really no discernible point to the story. However, it did smack of country life many years ago, so was pleasant enough.
March 15, 2021
A short story rather than a book. Lovely descriptive writing, I would have liked it to be longer!
The information about the author, says he wrote over 300 short stories in his lifetime, spanning from the 1920s to the 1970s. He also wrote many novels.
The information about the author, says he wrote over 300 short stories in his lifetime, spanning from the 1920s to the 1970s. He also wrote many novels.
October 7, 2015
I downloaded this for free, like the other reviewer and share the same opinion, however I felt like it wasted my time by posing as an insightful read.
December 2, 2015
I liked it, however I felt it fell a little flat. The ending was lacking.
December 22, 2015
Short and sweet
October 8, 2016
I would say that Smiler appears in the Uncle Silas stories, the boy's Grandmother definitely sounds familiar!
Bates evokes a great atmosphere of time and place in this little gem.
Bates evokes a great atmosphere of time and place in this little gem.
July 25, 2018
I really like HE Bates, but this short story is gibberish and without poignancy or any depth. The narrative is ok. But I expected more. Nowhere near HE Bates's better works.
July 23, 2021
Quite a strange short story.
April 10, 2021
Short, funny, sweet story.
January 30, 2018
More of an incident than an actual story.
November 5, 2015
No es malo, pero le falta para ser bueno.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews