Library
Bob Henderson
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Two very different authors connected by a resting place in Kent
The unlikely pairing of H.E. Bates (1905-1974) and Simone Weil (1909-1943) are bought together by the location of their graves, which you can easily visit over the space of an afternoon if you find yourself heading to Ashford.
The Rushden born author H.E. Bates, can be found just outside Ashford in the crematorium in Charing, while you may well travel along Simone Weil Avenue to reach Bybrook cemetery, where the French philosopher’s grave can be found behind Ashford’s Cineworld cinema.
Simone Weil
Simone Weil was born in Paris where she went to university (along with Simone De Beauvoir and Jean Paul Satre) and became a renowned French philosopher, activist and mystic. Her writing covers the nature of suffering, good and evil and social justice. It’s complex work, covering many theological, political and philosophical topics.
It was in August 1943 that she was moved to Grosvenor Sanitorium, Kennington, Ashford, where she was to pass away. She has heart failure listed on her death certificate, though it is contested as to whether this was due to self-starvation. She was said to have only accepted the food rations which would have been the same as those involved in the war struggle in France, though there is much debate about the exact circumstances of her death.
H.E. Bates
H.E. Bates grew up in the small Northamptonshire town of Rushden, and wrote novels, short stories and plays. He spent a significant portion of his life living and working in Kent, finding inspiration in the Kentish countryside, which frequently served as the backdrop for his evocative tales. Bates moved to a small village outside Ashford in 1931 and remained there for the rest of his life. An urn with his ashes lies in nearby Charing.
His most famous work was the novel The Darling Buds of May (1958), which centred around the Larkin family and their adventures in rural Kent, though he also wrote about Dover in the thinly veiled fictionalisation of the short story An Aspidistra in Babylon – you can read more about this collection of short stories on Kent Maps Online. Though often nostalgic and sentimental, his stories of rural life in England do uniquely evoke a moment in time, albeit one that may never have existed.
Online Resources:
H.E. Bates has been popularised famously through TV series. His sentimental take on Kentish country living captured the imagination of the UK in the early nineties (helped with the youthful appearances of Catherine Zeta-Jones, David Jason and Pam Ferris) thanks to the televised version of The Darling Buds of May (1991) which you can watch on Box of Broadcasts, where they have hundreds of episodes to choose from. You can also see the more recent remake The Larkins (2021) which features… Bradley Walsh.
Though Simone Weil’s writing has yet to be televised you can hop onto Kanopy to watch the documentary An Encounter with Simone Weil: French Philosopher, Activist, and Mystic (2010) to find out more about her fascinating life.
Books:
You can find these titles by looking on LibrarySearch:
Simone Weil : an introduction to her thought
Hellman, John. (Fortress Press , 1984)
194 WEI/HEL
Simone Weil’s philosophy of culture : readings toward a divine humanity
Bell, Richard H. (Cambridge University Press , 1993)
194 WEI
Weil, Simone. (Cambridge University Press, 1978)
194 WEI
Bates, H. E. (Reprint Society, 1949)
823.9 BAT
The modern short story: a critical survey.
Bates, H. E. (Nelson, 1941)
808.31 BAT
You can find a display of this blog on the third floor of Augustine House throughout April 2024. These displays are updated monthly to highlight authors with a connection to Kent, featured on Kent Maps Online.
