Flying Goat

The Flying Goat (Jonathan Cape, 1939) features sixteen diverse stories from slapstick sketches to portraits of marital tension; one Uncle Silas tale; and three that hark back to Bates''s boyhood roots.

''A Funny Thing'' is an escalating bragging match between Uncle Silas and Uncle Cosmos. Cosmos is modelled on Bates''s paternal grandfather, Charles Lawrence, who was "known about Rushden as a dappe...