The Darling Buds of May: Inspiration for the ITV drama The Larkins starring Bradley Walsh (The Larkin Family Series, 1)

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It should not be overlooked, however, that he also wrote some outstanding novels, starting with The Two Sisters through to A Moment in Time, with such works as Love For Lydia, Fair Stood the Wind for France and The Scarlet Sword earning high praise from the critics. Now known as “Charley,” our hapless hero floats along on a stream of unstinting alcohol and unending feasts.

Bates goes on to cite the novels as reflective of the vast changes to the English countryside in the 1950s but, more significantly, he notes that "it is not to be denied, moreover, that there is something of myself in Pop Larkin: a passionate Englishman, a profound love of Nature, of the sounds and sights of the countryside, of colour, flowers and things sensual; a hatred of pomp, pretension and humbug; a lover of children and family life; an occasional breaker of rules, a flouter of conventions. If this book is over 5 years old, then please expect the pages to be yellowing or to have age spots. Pappa Larkinin mutkaton ja maanläheinen elämänasenne hymyilyttää, ja myös Englannin maaseutua ja Mamman ruokapöytään loihtimia herkkuja kuvataan kaikkia aisteja kutkuttavalla tavalla. Bates was partial to taking long midnight walks around the Northamptonshire countryside - and this often provided the inspiration for his stories.

Bates was a great lover of the countryside and its people and this is exemplified in two volumes of essays entitled Through the Woods and Down the River. They moved to the village of Little Chart in Kent and bought an old granary and this together with an acre of garden they converted into a home. His collection of stories written while serving in the RAF during World War II, best known by the title The Stories of Flying Officer X, but previously published as Something in the Air (a compilation of his two wartime collections under the pseudonym 'Flying Officer X' and titled The Greatest People in the World and How Sleep the Brave), deserve particular attention.

It was impossible to describe what the full soft lips of Mariette had felt like against his own except that it was, perhaps, like having them brushed by the skin of a warm firm plum, in full ripeness, for the first time. But who picks fruit these days and are they having nearly as much fun as we chosen few did, the Mariettes and Ma Larkins, the Charlies and tiny Aunt Fans, the multitude of kids who stuffed their gobs with the succulent, juicy strawberries until their lips, tongues and cheeks were as red as the fruit itself - like I did some 40 years ago? This is the first volume of the Larkin series with a cast of carefree rustics (maybe they are not really rustics, perhaps they are crooks) who do exactly what they want, get their money (in large quantities) from doing nothing (or worse) and, whatever they do, seem to land on their feet.

When Cedric Charlton, an unsuspecting tax inspector, arrives at the door of the Pop Larkin farm, he soon forgets the purpose of his visit: The fun-loving Ma and Pop Larkin distract him at every turn with strawberries, cream, alcohol, and their attractive young daughter, Mariette. Either someone who grew up far from this country (and thinks this is English humour or our joie de vivre) or someone who experienced this era and looks back on it with nostalgia and rose-tinted spectacles. I also got the growing feeling that Charlie was being entrapped by all the adult Larkins as husband fodder for Mariette. Each title has some slight separation at the spine tips, with some additional crumpling and creasing on the later two titles. The Darling Buds of May is the first book of The Pop Larkin Chronicles, introducing the Larkin family from Kent, who enjoys nature, each other's company, food and drink immensely.

At its heart, it's a comedy featuring an eccentric family and it's round and warm and gorgeous and bathing in the sun. We soon discover, Ma and Pop Larkin are unconcerned about late 1950s conventions: a baby is simply a wonderful addition to the Larkin paradise on Earth.

While response from the public and the popular press was uniformly positive, literary critics, especially as the series continued, generally condemned the series as trivial and undeserving of Bates's talents. Which is why this book gets a "perfick" rating with all the stars available in the Goodreads universe.