Tom Bates, Derbyshire Author, Writer and Poet

Introducing Tom Bates, Peak District Local History Author ...

For many years readers of Reflections magazine have enjoyed the village features written by Derbyshire Peak District Author Tom Bates. Like the artist who captures the essence of the county in watercolours or oils, Tom Bates is a writer who captures the essential spirit of Derbyshire in words.

He conveys the essence of history found in each unique location; old-world hamlets; reed-fringed village duckponds; ancient towering oaks in gardens planted in Elizabethan times. Yet Tom says "I do not write spontaneously, I am one of those poor unfortunates who have to construct words very carefully in order to convey exactly what I mean".

"Perhaps with the exception of Alison Uttley and R. Murray Gilchrist, both of whom painted vivid word portraits and captured the very essence of time and place, very few Derbyshire-born authors have offered substantial portraits of Derbyshire life 'as it happens'.”

Although Tom Bates wrote this of Peak District author Crichton Porteous, it is arguably Tom Bates himself who captures the spirit, the quintessential essence of Derbyshire in his descriptive features in Reflections magazine.

As well as being meticulously researched, his writing appears effortless, an elegant, seamless and concise melding of often complex historical fact. Tom’s ‘sense impressions’ of the Derbyshire landscape over which he has tramped for the better part of half a century render his work unique.

The three-dimensional clarity and quality of his writing, rarely achieved by other writers, conveys to me a sense of actually being there, of actually seeing each village through his eyes. His enchantment with all that he sees becomes palpable in the written word; and each memorable detail affectionately recalled, quickens the spirit and stirs the imagination.

Beverley Eley – Author & Literary Agent. NSW Australia