Herbert Ernest Bates, known better as HE, was a British writer of novels & marvellous short stories spanning the pre- and post-war social history of the England of the time, in particular rural England. Many, perhaps most of his stories were turned into movies and tv series and many of these were award winning. I spent many a day going around the now vanished 2nd hand bookshops seeking out his writings. The short stories in particular were out of print. I still have them.
Probably the most successful of the tv series was based on a series of short novels beginning with The Darling Buds of May from 1958. It starred David Jason as Pop Larkin, as a similar character to his DelBoy in Only Fools & Horses, a dealer in anything he could get his hands on. The stories have been remade into a series called The Larkins, currently running on ABC. I'm reluctant to disparage anything but the new version isn't a patch on the old. That's not always the case. There have been countless movie remakes of older ones and by and large the new ones are better, classier and better acted.
