The Pop Larkin Chronicles : The Darling Buds of May, A Breath of French Air, When the Green Woods Laugh, Oh! To Be in England, A Little of What You Fancy

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The characters (mostly Pop and Ma, the children aren’t explored much) are fun-loving but also kind-hearted and generous, sending away people that come to visit with food, such as nice cuts of pork from their pig they just slaughtered.

One thing was for certain – the second the Larkin’s got home and saw poor Charley standing there in their yard, he never, ever had a chance. The Larkin family appeared in the ITV adaptation, ‘The Darling Buds of May’, over three series between 1991 and 1993 (starring David Jason, Pam Ferris, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Philip Franks). I don't know how to describe this book - it's a small, perfectly round pastry - a profiterole if you will - of a book. 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.We are able to observe a love story from the parent's view with a background of rich country living. Rich people being boringly melodramatic doesn’t fill me with a great deal of sympathy for the characters, to be honest. 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.

The later two titles are with previous owners ink, with one having an address stamp and the other, a squiggle mark. His first book, ‘ Sonali’ is a photo-memoir journal of life in Bangladesh and has been highly praised by the Bangladeshi diaspora worldwide. She isn't even sure who the father might be, it certainly isn't Cedric, who has just appeared in the Larkin's ramshackle farmyard to collect taxes. All this wickedness is only hinted at but never seen, which under the circumstances is just as well.Now known as “Charley,” our hapless hero floats along on a stream of unstinting alcohol and unending feasts. Having produced 6 children without the encumbrance of a marriage certificate, Ma and Pop Larking know they can easily manage a grandchild that comes from "the wrong side of the blanket". Forever bathed in golden sunlight and blessed with the fragrance of gardenia, buttercups and may, not to mention sage and onion and roast geese, and ringing with the laughter of Ma Larkin and Pop's belching, The Darling Buds of May is simply a must-read.