H. E. Bates Lydia". His most popular creation was the Larkin family in "The Darling Buds of May". Pop Larkin and his family were inspired by a colourful character seen in a local shop in Kent by Bates and his family when on holiday. The man (probably Wiltshire trader William Dell, also on holiday) turned up to the shop with a huge wad of rubber-banded bank notes and proceeded to spoil his trailer load of children with Easter eggs and ice creams. The television adaptation, produced after his death by his son Richard and based on these stories, was a tremendous success. It
Frank Bates in the majors again. Bates returned to the Interstate League in 1900, and he went 6-13. In 1908, he finished his professional baseball career with the Cotton States League's Meridian Ribboners. In September 1918, Bates was living in Cincinnati, and working as a laborer for H. E. Culberson in Mingo Junction, Ohio. Frank Bates "This article is about the baseball player. For Frank S. Bates the University of Minnesota Professor." Creed Napoleon "Frank" Bates (September 28, 1876 – after 1918) was a pitcher in Major League Baseball from 1898 to 1899. He played for the Cleveland Spiders and St. Louis