The Purple Plain

During 1945 H. E. Bates spent some time in Burma and India with the aim of writing about the Burmese war for American readers. The experience inspired three ‘Asian novels’, one of which was “The Purple Plain”. After returning to England he heard a story about a pilot who, having lost his wife to a German bomb while on honeymoon, as a consequence had become "a much-decorated hero by the dubious method of trying to get himself killed". It provided the spark that prompted Bates to start working on the novel (in any event, because of his experiences while over there, he was already keen to write about his time in Burma). In the novel, Forrester, commander at an air station on the "purple plain" of Burma, loses the will to live, but regains it upon meeting a young Burmese woman, Anna, who has passed through her own wartime trauma. He survives a plane crash, rescues a fellow pilot, and is finally reunited with Anna. It is a tale of human courage and endurance in the face of tremendous odds, and it was certainly “something different” for Bates. The book was published in late November 1947, and in 1954 the story was filmed starring Gregory Peck and Win Min Than.

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