FLYING OFFICER X

The name of HE Bates held a particular resonance for me in the 1950s when I first came across his rural writings, and more particularly his hugely popular War-time titles, stories gleaned from his experiences in Burma and India and which most famously included The Purple Plain, The Jacaranda Tree, and The Scarlet Sword. They won him a big reputation particularly in Britain and America and, up to the 1970s, these three books had been translated into 16 different languages. The total may be even higher by now.
War tales aside - Bates died in 1974, by the way - the pleasure I derived from his writings came almost exclusively from his many pastoral stories of the countryside and of rural people, texts he embued with a sort of Laurie Lee-like lyricism. Titles like The Nature of Love, The Wild Cherry Tree, The Triple Echo, The Song of the Wren, and Country Tales, all of which still sit quite happily on my shelves. It seemed to me at the time there was something infinitely comfortable and comforting about them, as there was a beautifully polished touch to his writing. With very little thought, therefore, HE Bates joined Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Hardy and John Steinbeck my writing idols list.
A couple of decades later I randomly acquired a paperback copy of his 1944 novel, Fair Stood the Wind for France, a taut and vivid tale of an RAF bomber crew after their Wellington had crashed behind enemy lines. If I also had a Top 20 list of favourite books then it would certainly find its way there, too, and without too much trouble. Equally importantly, as far as I was concerned, the flyleaf also said that early in the War HE Bates was a sort of 'writer in residence' at an RAF bomber station in this country, and that he undertook a similar role at bases in Burma and India. Then in 1941 he had published two slim books of War-time short stories written using the cover name, Flying Officer X.
It took a little time, but I did in the end track down copies of them both, The Greatest People in the World, and How Sleep the Brave. I have them beside me now, slim, unassuming volumes, one stiff-covered in faded blue, the other a gawdy red-and-white paperback; one published by Jonathan Cape, the other produced by Cape for The British Publishers' Guild. It goes without saying they were both printed on War economy standard paper.
All the fictional short stories are based on what Bates heard and saw and experienced at various bomber bases, and they are raw and tender and poignant. Indeed, almost matter-of-fact. I prize them highly.
The British Publishers' Guild, by the way, was a consortium of publishers which co-operated 'during the present emergency' to produce a comprehensive list of important books of universal appeal in paper covers at very low prices. The Guild's titles first appeared in February, 1941, and by the time How Sleep the Brave came out, 50 titles had been released.
I have no idea why HE Bates chose to use the name Flying Officer X, but it might have been because of some War Department directive, or security measure. Either way, I am so glad he made the effort.