H.E. Bates Companion

In one of a series called "The Moment That Shaped My Life," in which "six famous writers describe their great moments of self-discovery," Bates vividly recalls the role of his Kettering School English teacher, Edmund Kirby in Bates's growth from lethargy to "ambition" that "shone like a beacon. I knew that I not only wanted to be, but had to be, a writer." The essay includes phrases from a similar account of Kirby's influence in Vanished World (102-106) which was published in 1969. In Woman (September 16, 1972, lxxi, 1839, p. 42).