Abinger Harvest

The book is divided into four sections and an article on a country pageant:^[8]

• "The Present"

The essays in this section focus on contemporary society, post-war culture, England and Englishness.^[8][3][2]

• "Books"
• "The Past"
• The East"
• "The Abinger Pageant"^[1]

Abinger Hammer is a small village in the Vale of Holmesdale that had been connected to the Forsters for many decades.

The work received a muted and divided response. Q. D. Leavis called it “a disappointing book” in a review published in Scrutiny, but in The Yale Review John Crowe Ransom called it “one of the notable literary miscellanies of our time”.^[2]

The first edition included an article reviewing a pamphlet by engineer William Willcocks titled "A Flood in the Office".^[7] Willcocks' pamphlet disparaged Murdoch Macdonald's views on treatment of the Nile and Murdoch subsequently won a libel case against Willcocks for the publication.^[9] Forster's review heavily favoured Willcock's interpretation.^[7]

By reprinting the review, Forster had restated the libel. This caused Murdoch to pursue Forster for damages.^[7] Forster and his publisher ultimately had to pay £500 and costs, the withdraw the article from Abinger Harvest and issue an apology in court.^[9][7] Unsold copies of the book were re-issued with the pages containing "A Flood in the Office" removed.^[1] This resulted in 1936 re-issued copies of Abinger Harvest to list "A Flood in the Office" in its table of contents without actually containing the article.^[9]

The incident made Forster concerned about potential libellous content in his work on T. E. Lawrence. He even unsuccessfully reached out to Lawrence's estate to gain assurances he would not be sued.^[7]