Shop H.E. Bates Online
- ID
- c167
- Title
- "Shoemakers Remembered."
- Genre
- Essay
- Page Count
- 11
- Word Count
- 2800
- Publication Year
- 1957
- Document Types
- Full-text Online
- Autobiographical
- Topics
- Rushden, Shoemakers
Bates reused this entire essay in 1971, with little alteration except in the first and last paragraphs, in The Vanished World (pp. 33-41).
He recalls the streets and buildings of his boyhood home, Rushden, then provides a vivid depiction of the appearance, style, and personal habits of his father and other shoemakers. The "torture" of waiting hours on Saturday mornings for a haircut, surrounded by "shag-smoking, snuff-taking, stubble-faced working men" forms part of a vivid depiction of village barber shops.
In The Book of Leisure (ed. John Pudney, London: Odhams Press, 1957, pp. 116-126, attached), Leisure-Hour Companion (1959).
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