H.E. Bates Companion

Bates reused this entire essay in 1971, with little alteration except in the first and last paragraphs, in The Vanished World (33-41). He recalls the streets and buildings of his boyhood home, Rushden, then provides a vivid depiction of the appearance, style, and personal habits of his father and other shoemakers. The "torture" of waiting hours on Saturday mornings for a haircut, surrounded by "shag-smoking, snuff-taking, stubble-faced working men" forms part of a vivid depiction of village barber shops. In The Book of Leisure (ed. John Pudney, London: Odhams Press, 1957, pp. 116-26), Leisure-Hour Companion (1959).