Combining Bates' three acclaimed autobiographies, The Vanished World, The Blossoming World and The World in Ripeness, this volume is a tribute to one of the most prolific and popular of English writers, described by Graham Greene as Britain's successor to Chekhov. In his lifetime, Herbert Earnest Bates wrote poetry, plays and essays, but is best known as a novelist and master short-story writer. His fiction, like his autobiographies, are celebrated for their memorable characters and their rich, lyrical evocation of period and place, particularly English rural life in times gone by. The Vanished World, the first volume of Bates' autobiography, depicts his childhood in the Nene Valley, where the beauty of the English countryside inspired him from an early age. The Blossoming World begins when Bates is twenty and his first novel, The Two Sisters, was published. Taking the reader through to 1941, this volume describes Bates' developing literary career, married life and his spirited reaction to the impending war. The World in Ripeness tells of Bates' time in the R.A.F., which he joined in 1941 as a commissioned short story writer, and his service in Burma, which inspired The Purple Plain group of novels. As well as describing the backgrounds to many of his books, including the much-loved Larkin Family novels, Bates fills his autobiographies with tales of his meetings and friendships with the famous and extraordinary. Whether he is describing tea with Lawrence of Arabia or lunch with Graham Greene, Bates' versatile, lively and irreverent mind makes this fascinating reading. H. E. Bates died in 1974. Published to coincide with the publication by Methuen of three of Bates' novels, The Jacaranda Tree, The Purple Plain and The Feast of July.