Instead, it's those people who are concerned with appearances and respectability who are the objects of fun, from the tweed-clad spinster, to the local squire concerned with keeping his tumbling pile to the white-collar office clerk. They are instead though seen to be overwhelmingly happy with their life and we can't help but like and admire them - it's this that creates the false nostalgia impression. Although Charley can’t quite figure out what Pop Larkin does (he claims to be a farmer) and how he makes his money, any questions he has are soon brushed away in favour of another Dragon’s Blood or bowl of strawberries and cream.

Pappa Larkinin mutkaton ja maanläheinen elämänasenne hymyilyttää, ja myös Englannin maaseutua ja Mamman ruokapöytään loihtimia herkkuja kuvataan kaikkia aisteja kutkuttavalla tavalla. I decided to remedy this one Sunday afternoon, the little time it takes to read it, barring distractions.ITV produced a television series of the novel, and its sequels plus additional original storylines, The Darling Buds of May, which ran from 1991 to 1993. I enjoyed parts and there were some hilarious situations but overall the language and intimate descriptions left me wishing I had passed on this book. When Cedric Charlton, an unsuspecting tax inspector, arrives at the door of the Pop Larkin farm, he soon forgets the purpose of his visit: The fun-loving Ma and Pop Larkin distract him at every turn with strawberries, cream, alcohol, and their attractive young daughter, Mariette. Written and published almost exactly ten years after Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Darling Buds Of May is, peculiarly and probably quite unintentionally, more accurately prophetic of modern British Society than that nightmare: here are a family who constantly eat crisps and ice-cream, who leave the television on through all daylight hours, whose parents are unmarried and drink heavily and who think nothing of their teen-aged daughter being single and pregnant. Batesin "Oi ihana toukokuu" (Book Studio, 1992) tuli monille meistä tutuksi saman nimisenä televisiosarjana, jonka suosion ansiosta lienee aikanaan julkaistu myös tämä pokkaripainos.

I have always enjoyed British comedy and The Darling Buds of May was a comedy drama television series that aired for two years from 1991-1993. Their only income is through selling scrap, picking strawberries, and selling farm animals or previous purchases that they've tired of. The way the author decide that he must describe every 2 pages the body of women (Ma and Mariette particularly) was really off putting. It’s the kind of novella you can polish off in a sitting or two, and The Novel Cure prescribes it as a tonic for cynicism. Now known as “Charley,” our hapless hero floats along on a stream of unstinting alcohol and unending feasts.

I read it for an online book club that I’ve recently just joined and I have to say, it was not what I was expecting at all. It starred David Jason (from 'Only Fools and Horses' fame) as Pop Larkin, and Catherine Zeta-Jones ('The Mask of Zorro') played his eldest daughter Mariette. He welcomes Mr Charlton, a tax inspector into his home and into the arms of his seventeen year old daughter.