"This is how I began..."

Bates writes of his early work for a newspaper, his fledgling attempts at writing, the crucial influence of Edward Garnett, his literary influences, and the summer-house in which he does almost all of his work.

An excerpt from the essay was published as Where I work.

In an earlier essay, 'My Beginning', Bates wrote in detail about his experience as a newspaper reporter.

In Readers' News, (to coincide with the Readers' Union publication of Country Tales), October 1938, pp. 2-3, attached.