Anonymer Nutzer: H E Bates published two collections of stories in which Uncle Silas reminisces about the pleasures of a long life spent bringing joy to the deserving (mostly himself and the women of Bedfordshire) and confounding the undeserving (authority, mostly). Cowslip wine, poaching and very large pigs loom large, as does fruit: raspberries, gooseberries, apples are all described with a lushness bordering on the erotic. Well, not so much bordering on as indistinguishable from. The recipient of these tales is Silas's young great-nephew, who moves from innocent faith in the old man's every word - however outrageous the event described - to a realisation that his escapades are for the most part exaggerations, if not downright inventions. He doesn't let on, of course: his faith gives way to secret admiration and delight in the endless inventiveness of a master storyteller. Edward Ardizzone's pen-and-ink illustrations provide the perfect accompaniment to the text.… (mehr)