The Darling Buds of May (novel) film "The Mating Game" in 1959. ITV produced a television series based on the novel and its sequels, "The Darling Buds of May", which ran from 1991 to 1993. The Darling Buds of May (novel) The Darling Buds of May is a novella by British writer H. E. Bates, first published in 1958. It was the first of a series of five books about the Larkins, a rural family from Kent. Pop and Ma Larkin and their many children take joy in nature, each other's company, and almost constant feasts. Their only income is through selling scrap, picking strawberries, and
Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids ( ; also known as "Pluck the Bud and Destroy the Offspring") is a 1958 novel by Japanese author Kenzaburō Ōe. It is Ōe's first novel, written when he was 23 years old. It was originally published in 1958. The English version was translated in 1995. The novel deals with fifteen adolescent boys from a reformatory in World War II Japan. The boys (including the unnamed narrator and his brother) are sent to a rural village (strongly echoing the regions of Shikoku in which Ōe was raised) to