posted on 07 Jul 2022

 

The Darling Buds of May by H.E. Bates

I suspect that the H.E. Bates book has largely been eclipsed by the popularity of the television programme starring David Jason and Pam Ferris as Pa & Ma Larkin and with a young Catherine Zeta-Jones as one of their daughters, Mariette. And that’s a shame because this book and its four sequels are genuinely delightful examples of cunningly written light – almost Arcadian – fiction that doesn’t demand a huge amount of effort to read but doesn’t write down to its audience.

Reading the story of Ma and Pa Larkin, their rumbustious family and the way their lust for life infects everyone they come into contact with – including the ingenuous tax inspector, Cedric Charlton (‘Charlie’ by the end of the book) - is an uncomplicated pleasure. Not a great lot happens but it all takes place in a sun-dappled haze of excess – there’s barely a page in this book that’s not jammed with the details of huge and sumptuous meals taken in excess.

But part of what makes this bucolic heaven in which the Larkins live more substantial is the slightly arch, even dark, background to the Larkin lifestyle that gets some knowing acknowledgment but is never described. What exactly is Pa Larkin up to in his wheeling and dealing? What sits behind the rather casually introduced fact that actually Pa and Ma Larking aren’t actually married? 

What becomes clear is that Pa Larkin is in fact the archetypal wheeler and dealer, the loveable rogue who operates on the very edges of legality. After all, Cedric Charlton visits the family in the first place because they aren’t paying tax and they not only keep him from returning to his own world but have him lined up as a useful partner for their lovely daughter, Mariette who they believe to be pregnant by some unknown beau. Poor old Cedric – who they rechristen Charlie – is a lamb to the slaughter, bedazzled by Mariette’s beauty and wrapped in the web of hedonism the Larkins represent. On reflection you have to wonder whether the Larkins are liberators from stuffy convention or users who exploit those they come into contact with.

But I’m conscious that I’m making the whole thing sound much more serious than it is – this is a roller-coaster of good will that takes the reader by the hand and takes them to a world as unlikely and as irresistible as Rupert’s Nutwood.

The H.E. Bates Companion website notes that in writing The Darling Buds of May, Bates was engaging in a bit of personal wish-fulfilment. 

"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....Pop is in fact an expression of my own philosophy: the need to go with the stream, never to battle against it." 

The Darling Buds of May (and its sequels) are perfect summer holiday reading – especially if you’re going to be taking your holiday in the British countryside of your dreams and imagination.

Plenty of copies – hardback and paperback – are easily found and can be purchased for well under £10.

 

Terry Potter

July 2022