The Watercress Girl & Other Stories, first published in 1959 and appearing in paperback in 1963, is widely regarded as one of H. E. Bates’s strongest collections of stories. It contains The Cowslip Field, The Watercress Girl, Let’s Play Soldiers, The Far Distant Journey, The Pemberton Thrush, Death & the Cherry Tree, A Great Day for Bonzo, The Butterfly, Love in a Wych Elm, The House With a Grape Vine, Great Uncle Crow, Source of the World, and The Poison Ladies. The author pays tribute to the world of childhood, exploring its emotions, perceptions, and growth; and he depicts the social life of children as they interact with each other and with an adult world that both mystifies and fascinates them.
The Watercress Girl & Other Stories, first published in 1959 and appearing in paperback in 1963, is widely regarded as one of H. E. Bates’s strongest collections of stories. It contains The Cowslip Field, The Watercress Girl, Let’s Play Soldiers, The Far Distant Journey, The Pemberton Thrush, Death & the Cherry Tree, A Great Day for Bonzo, The Butterfly, Love in a Wych Elm, The House With a Grape Vine, Great Uncle Crow, Source of the World, and The Poison Ladies. The author pays tribute to the world of childhood, exploring its emotions, perceptions, and growth; and he depicts the social life of children as they interact with each other and with an adult world that both mystifies and fascinates them.