A GERMAN IDYLL (Golden Cockerel Press)

Printed and made in Great Britain by the Golden Cockerel Press at Waltham Saint Lawrence in Berkshire

40 pages and a colophon leaf, set in Golden Cockerel Press type and bound in red patterned cloth sides, red leather spine gilt-lettered in 6 lines, top edge gilt, others uncut, Bound by S. & S.London stamped at the base of the front paste-down endpaper, . The cloth sides are lightly aged around the edges, wood engraved frontispiece, title page and 8 other vignettes by Lynton Lamb, a very good copy.

The colophon reads:

This book was printed and published at the Golden Cockerel Press, Waltham Saint Lawrence, Berkshire, by Robert and Moira Bibbings, assisted by George Churchill, and completed on the 26th of April, 1932. Compositors: A.H. Gibbs and F. Young.

Pressman: A.C. Cooper.

The edition is limited to 307 copies, of which this is Number 74.

Signed by H.E. Bates.

"A German Idyll." Waltham Saint Lawrence, Berkshire: Golden Cockerel Press, 1932 (April 26). Wood engravings by Lynton Lamb. Dedication: "To Karl." An account of Bates's trip to Germany with Charles Lahr and others in 1927, including Karl's (Charles's) reunion with family in the town of Iben, feasting and drinking at the local inn, and a hesitant romance between Richardson (Bates) and the landlord's beautiful daughter Anna. The travelers depart, Richardson reflecting that Anna had "appeared briefly and wonderfully and had vanished, like the rainbow. He knew he would never see her again and he wondered if he would remember her...He wondered also if she would remember him." Rhys Davies confirms Bates's account, adding that "H.E. Bates, offering to escort a girl home, found her watchful aunt dogging their long walk at a discreet distance" (Print of a Hare's Foot, New York: Dodd, Mead, 1969, p. 172). Bates discusses the trip and the story in Blossoming World (54-57, 117) and used the trip for a later story, "The Bath" (a first-person narration). From H.E. Bates Companion (http://hebatescompanion.com/node/240)