H.E. Bates Companion

Stacey, a newspaper editor preparing an obituary for his employer, learns that in addition to a public life of civic and charitable service, the man was a miser, a cutthroat landlord, the father of an illegitimate child by a secretary, a collector of erotica, and a man who weekly booked hotel rooms under an assumed name, accompanied by one "wife" and later another. In the course of his investigation, Stacey meets several colorful characters, including a neurotic sister and two bitter employees. The story reflects Bates's experience on the Northamptonshire Chronicle. In Life and Letters To-day (Spring 1938), The Flying Goat (1939), Twenty Tales (1951).