The Darling Buds of May

A pulsing comedy of country manners. A five-alarm blaze of a book. Just about perfick. * Time *A gently, anarchic wish-fulfilling daydream * The Times *A perfick piece of entertainment * New York Times *A wistful daydream about innocence and happiness * Spectator *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 *As funny as Evelyn Waugh and as enchanting as Laurie Lee’s Cider with Rosie. Don’t miss it * Herald *They are absolute comfort books * The Lady *Pop is as sexy, genial, generous, and boozy as ever. Ma is a worthy match for him in all these qualities – - * The Times *As funny as Evelyn Waugh and as enchanting as Laurie Lee’s Cider with Rosie. Don’t miss it – - * Herald *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 *

H. E. Bates was born in 1905 in Northamptonshire. He worked as a journalist and clerk on a local newspaper before publishing his first book, The Two Sisters, when he was twenty. In the next fifteen years he acquired a distinguished reputation for his stories about English country life. During the Second World War he was a Squadron Leader in the R.A.F. The Darling Buds of May (1958), the first of the popular Larkin family novels, was followed by 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). His works have been translated into sixteen languages. H. E. Bates was awarded the C.B.E. in 1973 and died in January 1974.

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