He also wrote his autobiography in three volumes (each delightfully illustrated) which were subsequently published in a one-volume Autobiography. What he doesn’t know is that oldest daughter Mariette is in a bit of trouble and he might be just the man to help.

If there's a political message here then (and I understand that debate on that point rages in some circles) then it's one of iconoclasm and individualism and that's something I can wholly get behind. Just like tax inspector Cedric Charlton, you’ll find yourself drawn into the orbit of Pop and Ma Larkin and their six children – indomitably cheery hedonists, the lot of them. The second, fourth and fifth titles are toned and mildly foxed on the text blocks, with some light internal toning also present. They are instead though seen to be overwhelmingly happy with their life and we can't help but like and admire them - it's this that creates the false nostalgia impression.

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. Serialized in Argosy (May, June, and July 1958), in Everybody's Weekly (Six weekly parts, September 27-November 1, 1958), Daily Mail (Ten parts, Mary 13-23, 1991).

The Larkins live what appears at first to be a hand-to-mouth existence on a ramshackle farm, though Pop Larkin is never seen to do any actual farmwork like feeding the animals, milking or mucking out. The Darling Buds of May is the first book in the Pop Larkin Chronicles, a series of five books that joyfully tell the stories of the Larkins. I have always enjoyed British comedy and The Darling Buds of May was a comedy drama television series that aired for two years from 1991-1993. Batesin "Oi ihana toukokuu" (Book Studio, 1992) tuli monille meistä tutuksi saman nimisenä televisiosarjana, jonka suosion ansiosta lienee aikanaan julkaistu myös tämä pokkaripainos.

An afternoon of delicious golden content folded its transparent envelope more and more softly about the paradisiacal Larkin world, over the outlying meadow scintillating with its million buttercups and the shady fragrant walnut tree. Baldwin also notes a third source for the novels: "scrap metal man who sent his sons to King's Canterbury" when Bates's sons were there. Frankly, it should be compulsory for every human being on the planet to read The Darling Buds of May at least once in their life time - with the good example of Ma and Pop Larkin glowing cheerfully at the back of their minds like a summer's day in Kent, no human being could possibly want to start a war, exploit others for foul gain or deliberately hurt anyone!