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
The Darling Buds Caerleon and Monmouth. Chris McDonogh now works at Le Mons studio in Newport. Richard 'Bloss' Gray became an assistant manager in a hotel near Cardiff; as of 2012 he ran the Red Lion Inn in Cowbridge. Geraint Farr, Andrea Lewis' boyfriend during the band's early years, retrained as a dietician/nutritionist and moved to Bristol. "I don't know why, but he's turned his back on that part of his life," commented Lewis on Farr's refusal to join her for a one-off reunion. In July 2010, the Darling Buds with only Lewis Jarvis from the original line-up, reformed for a one-off tribute