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'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 . . .

'Home looks nice. Allus does though, don't it? Perfick'
One pleasant May evening, Pop and Ma Larkin and their six children - sated on fish, chips and ice cream - return to the rustic charms of their Kent farm. Waiting for them is a young man: Mr Cedric Charlton, an upstanding inspector of taxes, come to discover why they haven't paid any.
Yet as junk-dealer Pop patiently explains: nothing's ever 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 the sweet song of nightingales.
Will Cedric come to his senses?
Or will he beat a hasty retreat to the office?

Bates's famous loveable rogue, Uncle Silas, has a unique range of work to his name. For the first time, all of these stories are gathered together in one collection, allowing readers to experience Silas from multiple perspectives.

Some tales offer sly, affectionate glimpses of the narrator's great-uncle Silas – the rural oldster of the earthy, boozy, incorrigible school. But there is also an active tenderness as seen in 'The Revelation,' where the narrator watches old Silas being given a bath by his surly, long-time housekeeper – and realises that their relationship is intensely romantic.

When John Franklin brings his plane down into Occupied France at the height of the Second World war, there are two things in his mind - the safety of his crew and his own badly injured arm. It is a stroke of unbelievable luck when the family of a French farmer risk their lives to offer the airmen protection. During the hot summer weeks that follow, the English officer and the daughter of the house are drawn inexorably to each other.

‘The Darling Buds of May, which came out in 1958, was the first of five Larkin novels and in it readers witness the transformation of Mr. Charlton from a undernourished and timid tax clerk to ‘Charlie’, a fully-converted member of the Larkin way of life: an easygoing celebration of nature, food, drink, and family. In the process, the reader is introduced to the Brigadier, Miss Pilchester, and Angela Snow. Setting the style for the series, the book ends with a grand celebration, and the announcement of the wedding of Charlie and Mariette. The novel was filmed with the title ‘The Mating Game’, and between 1991 and 1993, Yorkshire Television produced a highly-successful television series called ‘The Darling Buds of May’. This first book in the Larkin series was very successful, appearing first in the United States and then in Britain, where it sold 40,000 in the first two months. Many critics felt that Bates deserved better than to be remembered mostly for the Larkin novels, but they were very profitable. The immensely popular Larkin series of comic novels consisted of ‘The Darling Buds of May’, ‘A Breath of French Air’ (1959), ‘When the Green Woods Laugh’ (1960), ‘Oh! To Be in England’ (1963), and ‘A Little of What You Fancy’ (1970). Bates, speaking of how he was inspired to create the Larkins, recalled the real junkyard that he often passed near his home in Kent; and he remembered seeing a family -- a father, mother and many children, sucking at ice-creams and eating crisps in a "ramshackle lorry that had been recently painted a violent electric blue". He tried writing a brief tale based on the family, but soon decided that he couldn’t waste such a rich gallery of characters to a short story." Pop is a wonderful character who hates pomp, pretension and humbug; loves his family, but doesn’t hesitate to break a few rules... and his and the Larkins' secret is “that they live as many of us would like to live if only we had the guts and nerve to flout the conventions." See also the Pop Larkin Chronicles, which contains all five Larkin books.

Meet the Larkin family! They enjoy a wonderful country life, never worrying about money, work- or the law! But then, one day, a man arrives from the tax office. Is the taxman going to change the Larkin's lives? Or is his life to change forever?

‘I should like to go to France,’ said Ma. ‘God Almighty,’ Pop said. ‘What for?’ ‘For a holiday of course,’ Ma said. ‘I think it would do us all good to get some sun.’ And so at the end of a rainy English August the Larkins – all ten of them, including little Oscar, the family’s new addition – bundle into the old Rolls and cross the Channel to escape the hostile elements. But far from being the balmy, sunny and perfick spot Ma Larkin hoped for, France proves less than welcoming to an eccentric English family. The tea’s weak, the furniture breakable and the hotel manager is almost as hostile as the wind and the rain they’ve brought…

Race, Self–Employment, and Upward Mobility