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A Little of What You Fancy
(The Pop Larkin Chronicles #5)
by
'Teetotal!' Ma said. 'It's a libel. He'll never live it down. He'll never be able to hold his head up again. Whatever will people think? What's he going to say when anybody asks him to have one?' ' 'No,' 'said Dr Conner. 'You'll have to strap him down,' Ma said. 'You'll have to put the handcuffs on.' And so after a mild heart-attack - caused by rather too much of what you
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Paperback, 216 pages
Published
1970
by Joseph
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I've read the earlier books in the Pop Larkin series and went on a hunt for this one (found it in the lovely ramshackle secondhand bookshop, Badger Books in Worthing)for purely escapist reasons. It delivered in bucketloads - bucketloads of champagne, brandy, roast chicken, rare beef, and jellies as wobbly as Ma Larkin. Not a lot happens but what do you want to happen when you can bask in the Kent sunshine in the glorious tumble of the Larkins'immodestly blooming garden. Perfick.

This is the final novel of the Pop Larkin series and to me this book was a great disappointment. I realise that Herbert E Bates was almost 70 years old when he wrote this book. He had seen two World Wars and had fought in the second one of the two. He had seen an old England disappear where the privileged classes had to leave their country homes and sell them to nouveau rich from London. The upper classes walking around in rags and not being able to make ends meet. He had seen old traditions fly
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In the final and longest of the Darling Buds of May, Pop takes a turn for the worst and uncharacteristically spends most of this time laid up in bed with some sort of heart problem, whilst the rest of the cast take centre stage. Pop soon rouses though when the future of the modern world attempts to uproot the Larkins forever.
The Pop Larkin Chronicles are the quintessential feel good, detached country-bound romp. Well known by the popular tv series starring David Jason and introducing a young Ca ...more
The Pop Larkin Chronicles are the quintessential feel good, detached country-bound romp. Well known by the popular tv series starring David Jason and introducing a young Ca ...more

my rating would be just over 3 stars i think - definitely not as good as the previous ones in the series but this final novel in the pop larkin series of stories is still a nice easy read is all of HE Bates novels.
however unlike the others where the stories revolve around a lead character (and family) who is full of the joys of living, this time around a heart attack has grounded pop larkin and he is generally depressed if not melancholic in mood for most of the story.
the ending which suddenly i ...more
however unlike the others where the stories revolve around a lead character (and family) who is full of the joys of living, this time around a heart attack has grounded pop larkin and he is generally depressed if not melancholic in mood for most of the story.
the ending which suddenly i ...more

Written 7 years after the previous book, it looks like the author had a bit of memory loss, because Ma and Pop’s grandson doesn’t get a mention. I liked the main story - Pop’s heart attack, and their solution for getting him back to himself. With all that’s going on with Brexit at the moment, it was funny reading this.
Overall, I didn’t like it as much as the other books in the series. Didn’t seem to have as much of a story, and as for Primrose and Mr Candy, I much preferred the TV version where ...more
Overall, I didn’t like it as much as the other books in the series. Didn’t seem to have as much of a story, and as for Primrose and Mr Candy, I much preferred the TV version where ...more

Yet down
What can I say after reading these books one after the other with great joy I was shocked at how let down I felt by this last book . Not one word rang true to people in the book . I felt the people had change in this book from the others as well as the time (years had no idea what year it was meant to be )
What can I say after reading these books one after the other with great joy I was shocked at how let down I felt by this last book . Not one word rang true to people in the book . I felt the people had change in this book from the others as well as the time (years had no idea what year it was meant to be )

Another good read (and the final one) in the Larkin chronicles.
This one feels less joyful than the previous ones though - mainly because this starts out with Pop suffering a heart attack (probably brought on by years of excessive food and drink consumption - you can tell these books weren't written in today's "health and safety" conscious days!) and then confined to bed whilst he recovers.
As the previous books have been full of Pop's lust for life, the contrast in this one where he feels despon ...more
This one feels less joyful than the previous ones though - mainly because this starts out with Pop suffering a heart attack (probably brought on by years of excessive food and drink consumption - you can tell these books weren't written in today's "health and safety" conscious days!) and then confined to bed whilst he recovers.
As the previous books have been full of Pop's lust for life, the contrast in this one where he feels despon ...more

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Pop Larkins is back … but not quite as one may have expected. It is not the usual Pop Larking that can be seen in the Pop Larkins series. The Pop Larkins chronicles has been always been about the rollicking country life. The rural setting and its casual lifestyle had always captivated me.
The Chronicle was very much characterized by a very humorous and with a carefree kind of attitude but in this last part Pop's illness and inability to indulge in his favorite pleasures have obviously dampen that ...more
The Chronicle was very much characterized by a very humorous and with a carefree kind of attitude but in this last part Pop's illness and inability to indulge in his favorite pleasures have obviously dampen that ...more

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Herbert Ernest Bates, CBE is widely recognised as one of the finest short story writers of his generation, with more than 20 story collections published in his lifetime. It should not be overlooked, however, that he also wrote some outstanding novels, starting with The Two Sisters through to A Moment in Time, with such works as Love For Lydia, Fair Stood the Wind for France and The Scarlet Sword e
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The Pop Larkin Chronicles
(6 books)
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