Cotswold Honey and Other Stories

The early popularity of this collection is seen in the fact that eight of the stories appeared in magazines during the 1920s and 30s, whilst Blood Oranges was published separately in 1932. The last six stories are narrated by a ship's doctor, hence the selection of The Ship's Surgeon's Yarn as the title story for the book's American edition. The SS Chusan, seen previously in Shellis's Reef (one of the stories in The Cage Bird collection), reappears, as does the East African port of Panda, which played a vital role in Sea Horses. Other tales in this collection tell of English ex-patriots who keep the flag flying in Italy and a German composer who revisits an ex-POW camp at Chadcombe House, Fladbourne, which are thin disguises for Brett Young's own home, Craycombe House at Fladbury. Cotswold Honey, which gives the collection its title, tells of a retired civil servant who revisits the scene of a youthful idyll, only to learn that he cannot recreate at whim a relationship that he had selfishly abandoned years before.