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
Martha E. Cram Bates suffered much during the last six months. She died at Traverse City, March 23, 1905, and was buried at Oakwood Cemetery in that town. She was survived by her husband, Thomas, and three children, George G. Bates, proprietor of the "American Poultry Journal of Chicago" and vice president of the Herald and Record Co.; Mabel and Clara. Martha E. Cram Bates Martha E. Cram Bates (August 25, 1839 – March 23, 1905) was an American writer, journalist, and newspaper editor. She was widely known throughout the Grand Traverse region, and throughout the State of Michigan as well, having been closely