As Berry and I Were Saying

As Berry and I Were Saying was published in 1952 by Ward, Lock & Co., representing a late entry in the prolific career of British author Dornford Yates. The book serves as a collection of lighthearted, episodic sketches featuring the well-known 'Berry' characters, a staple of Yates's social comedies that first gained prominence in the interwar period. By the 1950s, Yates was living in Southern Rhodesia, and these later works often reflected a nostalgic, somewhat detached view of the English aristocratic lifestyle he had chronicled throughout his earlier successes.

The design of the volume aligns with the traditional aesthetic of mid-century British publishing, emphasizing legible typography and modest jacket art intended for the circulating library market. While Yates was a best-selling author during the 1920s and 1930s, his post-war output, including this collection, was viewed by critics as a continuation of an established stylistic formula. It remains a characteristic example of his whimsical prose, primarily sought today by enthusiasts of the Berry Pleydell chronicles and those documenting the evolution of early twentieth-century British light fiction.