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Bedfordshire - My Uncle Silas by H. E. Bates


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BEDFORDSHIRE

 

My Uncle Silas by H. E. Bates

 

Synopsis:

The deeds and misdeeds of Uncle Silas, the rural reprobate, were renowned in the short stories H E Bates published in the 1930s.In this collection the stories are presented in full, accompanied by the original drawings by Edward Ardizzone that perfectly capture the little reed-thatched house atop a violet-banked lane.Over the course of ninety-five years Uncle Silas found the time to do most things: He boasted of the villains he had knocked to kingdom come as he boasted of the women whose hearts he had truly captured. Crotchety, vainglorious, occasionally wicked, he maintained a devilish spark of audacity which made him so attractive to everyone he met.

 

 

Other Bedfordshire books:

 

The Two Sisters by H. E. Bates

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054-2013-Nov-24-MyUncleSilas_zps28c1b29c

H E Bates must be most famous for his books based on the Larkin family, or for Love for Lydia (which I want to read some time), and I must admit that I hadn’t heard of this book until it was nominated for this challenge. I generally don’t tend to like short stories so picked this up with a bit of trepidation, but I needn’t have worried – it was an excellent read.

Narrated by the title character’s great-nephew (I can’t recall if he’s named but I don’t think he is) the book contains stories and anecdotes from Uncle Silas who, in his nineties, is as gregarious as ever. He lives in a little cottage and has a housekeeper with whom he has something of a love-hate relationship (although of course there is more to it than that!) and who loves nothing more than a drink and to take centre stage with his story telling.

I adored this book! I’m not sure if it gives a realistic flavour of Bedfordshire as a county but It really does sum up an idyllic bygone era - a time when people didn’t lock their front doors and life happened at a much gentler pace. It really put me in mind of Laurie Lee’s Cider With Rosie which is one of my favourite books. Uncle Silas is based on Bates’ maternal Grandmother’s husband. The characters are so funny and warm and richly drawn and I could happily have read more – I really want to read the second book containing more tales of this wonderful character. Top stuff!

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I love the cover, unfortunately i'm not a fan of Cider With Rosie but still looking forward to reading this one as i've not read any of Bate's books before. Incidentally i had a look on the library site & although they don't have a copy of the book they do have it on DVD  :smile:

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  • 1 month later...

I found this in a charity shop this weekend, and couldn't resist starting it almost straight away! :D

 

Uncle Silas is a rambunctious old rogue, who embellishes the truth to the full while recounting his stories to his great nephew.  This really was a joy to read, and although a collection of short stories, because all of them are told by, or relate to Uncle Silas, there is that narrative thread running through them all, making it feel much more like a novel.  I loved the length of the stories, just perfect, and without having to introduce them, or tie up any loose ends within each one, they are glorious little nuggets that are a joy to read.  Janet summed it up perfectly above in that they … "sum up an idyllic bygone era".  Loved it!

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Great review Janet, will try to track them down at the library. Absolutely adored The Darling Buds of May series, loved Cider With Rosie, but neither My Uncle Silas or Love For Lydia are available on Kindle :( 

Has anyone read The Purple Plain by H.E.Bates? I've started it several times and then stopped. A quite different kind of novel to his Larkin ones. Reminded me of Nevil Shute.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I read Uncle Silas over the weekend after Claire very kindly sent me her copy. A book of very short stories, they were all only about 10 pages long so a very quick read, as said before all about Uncle Silas a lovable reprobate now in his dotage. As with all short stories some of them were better than others. My favourites were The Lily for it's lovely descriptions of a summers day in a cottage garden, The Shooting Party, this for me was the funniest of the tales & The Return which was quite a sad ending to the book.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 4 months later...

Copied over from my reading log!

 

(I read this some weeks ago and forgot to post my thoughts here!)

 

 

 

I'm glad I'm doing the English Counties Challenge because this isn't the sort of book I would have ever picked up without it. 

 

I enjoyed this. It's not packed full of action, in fact it's rather slow in places, but it harks back to an earlier time when people did wander in and out of each other's houses, and growing food/flowers was a preoccupation for many rather than twitter and Amazon. 

 

Silas is a brilliant creation, and I would love to know how much is based on the real life relative of Bates', and how much is fictionalised. He's great - devilish, affectionate, prone to great exaggeration and lying, a great storyteller, boastful, vain and hilarious. 

 

It's a collection of short stories, so of course I did prefer some over others - my favourite was the Lily, which was clever and showed off Silas' character and sense of humour to perfection!

 

I've rated it as a 3, because while I did get a feeling of an earlier time, and indeed Bedfordshire, I wanted to ear more about Silas and less about his house and garden. I think my main issue was that these were a set of short stories originally designed to be serialised, not put together in one collection like this. That does mean the "scene setting" of the house, garden and vegetable growing did get a bit repetitive, but probably not unexpected given the original serialisation. 

 

On the whole, an enjoyable read thanks largely to a great cast of characters. 

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  • 1 year later...

Oh dear.  I'm sorry, but I really can't share the enthusiasm of everybody else here for My Uncle Silas.  Indeed, I'd go so far as to say it has been the most disappointing read of the 27 books to date aside from, perhaps, Cider with Rosie

 

Right from the first I had concerns, with its overblown idyllic descriptions (how many colours can I cram into a single paragraph?  How many adjectives can I squeeze into a sentence?), and this was soon exacerbated by some highly stereotypical characterisation, all of which persisted throughout.  As the book progressed, I also tired of the incessant repetition ('wet' lips stick in my mind!), and the predictability of the stories.  I can't say I was excited either by the alcoholic japes around which most were centred.  There were moments of genuine pathos (I found the ending of The Wedding particularly moving - ironically one of the rare occasions when the author kept it brief and to the point), but they were just moments.  I couldn't but help recall Cold Comfort Farm - this could have almost been the original target of that far more strongly written book's satire.

 

In the end, for me the one strong point was the book's overall brevity, This and the fact that it is part of the Counties challenge are the sole reasons for me reaching the end.  I say 'the end', but the edition I read was, in fact, The Complete Uncle Silas, merging the two Silas books into one for the Kindle.  I was relieved to put it down after the last story from the first book, and am in absolutely no hurry to move on to the others!

Edited by willoyd
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This was one of the first EC books I read. If I read it now I wouldn't score it as a 5/5 but it would still get 4/5, I think. I'm not changing all the places I've mentioned the score though so it'll have to stay as it is!!

 

I'm not a bit surprised you didn't like it, knowing just how much you disliked Cider with Rosie. :) At least you'll never have to read it again!

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This was one of the first EC books I read. If I read it now I wouldn't score it as a 5/5 but it would still get 4/5, I think. I'm not changing all the places I've mentioned the score though so it'll have to stay as it is!!

 

I do that quite often, and even deliberately. If I really like a book, I'll often give it 5/6 (excellent) and then wait for a few weeks to see how the book settles down in my mind, before deciding if it is likely to be a favourite (6/6) or not.  I've regraded elsewhere as well: I've given My Uncle Silas *(*), simply because I can't decide if it's 1 or 2., so that'll change at some stage.  But, like you, I won't change it everywhere - gets far too convoluted, and, anyway, that was the grade at the time the post was put up.

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I've been trying to be tighter in my scoring and give fewer 5/5s this year. :) I've still given quite a few - mostly (but not all) to Classics. :)

 

I find it quite hard scoring really because if I've thoroughly enjoyed a book and have found nothing lacking then it feels wrong to drop a mark, but then some 5s are even better than others!

 

I quite like Kay's 'I liked it', 'I loved it'... etc, but I like to match my Goodreads score.

 

It's all subjective, I suppose and doesn't really matter in the great scheme of things. :) I hope you enjoy your next CC book. :)

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I find it quite hard scoring really because if I've thoroughly enjoyed a book and have found nothing lacking then it feels wrong to drop a mark, but then some 5s are even better than others!

That's how I came to run a six star system (which a few others appear to have adopted): 5 star books are 'excellent, outstanding', but a 6-star book is a 'favourite' - it has that extra something that puts it in a rather more special place, an even better 5-star than others. There are currently 108 books on that list (68 fiction, 31 non-fiction, 9 children's) - not a lot after 50-odd years of reading and accumulating at the rate of 2-3 per year (so far this year, just one new one, Howards End).

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I gave Uncle Silas a 3 in the end - and given I can remember extremely little about it that seems fair! I do remember it being repetitive though.

 

I'm nervous about The Darling Buds of May now, which I still have to read.

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Interesting to read your thoughts on the book, willoyd. I agree with you a lot about Cider With Rosie, but I think, because Uncle Silas was out and out fiction, I was much more forgiving. That said, it's been almost 18 months since I read it, and I can't say I actually remember that much about it! It wouldn't be a top rated book for me, but I'd probably rate it either three or four out of five, based on the fact that I do remember having a smile on my face while reading it, and I know when I put it down, I let out a sigh of satisfaction, so it must have been good to read for me![/b]
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