The Wild Cherry Tree

London: Michael Joseph, 1968.

A late collection of ten tales, including two comic vignettes, one humorous celebration of the sensual life, and seven explorations of love, loneliness, and problematic relationships. Bates plucked one story from 1950 ("Love Me Little, Love Me Long") but otherwise the tales were all written between 1966 and 1968. The collection was a volume in the boxset Country and Other Matters. (1973).

Dominc Le Foe, in the Illustrated London News, writes that 'Mr Bates possesses an eagle eye; it is well matched with a sharp pen, and his armoury is further strengthened by a gentle wit and a sense of true pathos...Indeed, Mr Bates has favoured us with ten gems — graduated, gleaming, polished by a master craftsman, and set by an artist.'

Reviews:

• Books and Bookmen (March 1972 p. VIII, F.J. Brown, attached)
• New Statesman (November 1, 1968, p. 588, Vernon Scannell, attached)
• British Book News (April, 1969, p. 324, attached)
• Illustrated London News (November 30, 1968, p. 35, Dominic Le Foe, attached)

Contains: Halibut Jones; The Wild Cherry Tree; Some Other Spring; The World Upside-Down; How Vainly Men Themselves Amaze; The First Day of Christmas; The Black Magnolia; Love Me Little, Love Me Long; Same Time, Same Place; The Middle of Nowhere. ebook edition (Bloomsbury, 2016) also contains A Waddler.