Book description
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
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
, 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). His works have been translated into sixteen languages. H. E.
Bates was awarded the C. B.E. in 1973 and died in January 1974.
