H.E. Bates

Herbert Ernest Bates who wrote as H.E. Bates (May 16 1905 - January 29 1974) was an English writer and author. A prolific and successful author in his own lifetime, his greatest success was however posthumous, with the television adaptation of his novel The Darling Buds of May.

During World War II he was commissioned as a writer by the RAF and wrote a number of novels under the pseudonym of "Flying Officer X". His best war novel, however, was written under his own name, Fair Stood the Wind for France.

Other significant novels by Bates include The Jacaranda Tree, My Uncle Silas (recently adapted as an ITV television series), and Feast of July.