Герберт Эрнест Бэйтс – лучшие книги

Meet the Larkin family! They enjoy a wonderful country life, never worrying about money, work- or the law! But then, one day, a man arrives from the tax office. Is the taxman going to change the Larkin's lives? Or is his life to change forever?

‘I should like to go to France,’ said Ma.

‘God Almighty,’ Pop said. ‘What for?’

‘For a holiday of course,’ Ma said. ‘I think it would do us all good to get some sun.’

And so at the end of a rainy English August the Larkins – all ten of them, including little Oscar, the family’s new addition – bundle into the old Rolls and cross the Channel to escape the hostile elements.
But far from being the balmy, sunny and perfick spot Ma Larkin hoped for, France proves less than welcoming to an eccentric English family. The tea’s weak, the furniture breakable and the hotel manager is almost as hostile as the wind and the rain they’ve brought with them! And when the manager learns that Ma and Pop are unmarried yet sharing a room under his roof, the trouble really begins…

'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 . . .

When John Franklin brings his plane down into Occupied France at the height of the Second World war, there are two things in his mind - the safety of his crew and his own badly injured arm. It is a stroke of unbelievable luck when the family of a French farmer risk their lives to offer the airmen protection. During the hot summer weeks that follow, the English officer and the daughter of the house are drawn inexorably to each other.