H.E. Bates Companion

Bates takes issue with Americans who hold that England is dead, and fantasizes bringing twelve Americans to his home town, Little Chart in Kent, to experience the coronation of Elizabeth II and see that "the glow you see in the sky comes from the fire of a great people who are happy. The silence you can hear is the living beat of an enormous heart." Bates projects what his visitors would see: the English countryside in full bloom, a village parade and games, abundant food and drink, and a variety of other expressions of a country's celebration of their new Queen. In the Sunday Express (May 31, 1953).