The Darling Buds of May
  • Published: 3 May 2018
  • ISBN: 9780141029672
  • Imprint: Michael Joseph
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 144
  • RRP: $24.99

The Darling Buds of May

Inspiration for the ITV drama The Larkins starring Bradley Walsh

Formats & editions
EBook
18 Apr 2007
Paperback
3 May 2018
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Celebrating 60 perfick years of the Larkins

'Home looks nice. Allus does though, don't it? Perfick'

And so the Larkins - Pop, Ma, Mariette, Zinnia, Petunia, Primrose, Victoria and Montgomery - return from an outing for fish and chips and ice cream one May evening. There, amid the rustic charms of home, they discover a visitor: one Cedric Charlton, Her Majesty's inspector of taxes.

Mr Charlton is visiting to find out why junk-dealer Pop hasn't paid his tax - but nothing's that simple at the Larkins. Mariette takes a shine to 'Charley' - as Pop calls him - and before long the family have introduced the uncomplaining inspector to the delights of country living: the lusty scents of wild flowers, the pleasures of a bottle of Dragon's Blood, cold cream dribbled over a bowl of strawberries and hot, hot summer nights.

In fact, soon Charley can't see any reason to return to the office at all . . .
  • Published: 3 May 2018
  • ISBN: 9780141029672
  • Imprint: Michael Joseph
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 144
  • RRP: $24.99
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About the author

H.E. Bates

H. E. Bates was born in Northamptonshire in 1905. He published his first novel, The Two Sisters, when he was twenty, and for the next decade built up a reputation as a writer of great versatility. During the Second World War Bates was commissioned by the RAF as a short story writer, where he wrote the acclaimed How Sleep the Brave and The Greatest People in the World. His most popular creation was the effervescent Larkin family about whom he wrote five novels including The Darling Buds of May and A Little of What You Fancy. In 1973 H. E. Bates was awarded the C.B.E. He died in 1974.

Also by H.E. Bates

When the Green Woods Laugh
A Little of What You Fancy
A Breath of French Air
Oh! to be in England
Fair Stood the Wind for France
How Sleep the Brave
My Uncle Silas
See all

Praise for The Darling Buds of May

A gently, anarchic wish-fulfilling daydream

The Times

A perfick piece of entertainment

New York Times

A pulsing comedy of country manners. A five-alarm blaze of a book. Just about perfick

Time

A wistful daydream about innocence and happiness

Spectator

As funny as Evelyn Waugh and as enchanting as Laurie Lee's Cider with Rosie. Don't miss it

Herald

Pop is as sexy, genial, generous, and boozy as ever. Ma is a worthy match for him in all these qualities

The Times

Pop Larkin, Ma and their progeny . . . are essentially English of the rich and ribald England of Chaucer and Shakespeare. A superb and timeless comedy

Scotsman

The Larkins live - these novels please us by escaping definition

Guardian
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