In Which I Discover A Book Jeremy Hunt And Nigel Farage Will Like

Hello here. Hope you're feeling well today.

At long last I've A Little Bit Of What You Fancy by H E Bates,the final of the Larkin family novels by H E Bates written in 1970. Didn't have high hopes. If you remember I mentioned when starting that my view of the original Darling Buds of May was that the TV series was better and after the first season I'd lost interest in that as well.

Well what surprised me was not that I didn't like it. It was how much I hated it.

A consistent theme of both books is that real enemy is "the state". The lauded Larkin lifestyle is to pay no tax,be entrepremrial and with the money earned to be extravagant in how your life is lived. It is "the state" that tries to hold you back.In The Darling Buds Of May "the state" was represented by the tax office.Tax, terrible thing, what provides everyone with such things as education, roads,libraries and of course health. Tax: The thing the Larkins avoid. They are tax avoiders and are being lauded for it.

In the beginning of A Little Bit Of What You Fancy the state, though not named, is represented by the NHS. Pop Larkin has a mild heart attack and so he is confined to his bedroom. The state's treeatment of him is represented as being too harsh. If you want more symbolism, the original female nurse has a moustache.

Contrast that with the private sector. Not only is the treatment more relaxed and appears to be working but the nurse here is a beautiful and friendly Australian woman.

Of course let's forget the fact that the reason Pop Larkin is in that position is his lassiez faire lifestyle in the first place.

So that's Conservative Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt sorted. Now let's deal with the ex leader of UKIP Nigel Farage. Think I mentioned in the past that I thought that his favourite book was Dracula, given that it was about an illegal Romanian immigrant that creates havoc in Britain. This however comes close.For what suddenly galvanises Pop Larkin into action is the discovery that not only that the Channel Tunnel could be built but that it would go through their area.

England,their England is being threatened. I stress England here because nowhere is Britain mentioned when the book turns all UKIP. There is a moment where with a few alterations you couldn't tell the difference between the book and a Brexit campaigner.

(I know what you'll say. There's another novel in the series when the Larkins go to France. Makes no difference. There are notceable Leave people who have villas in EU countries.)

I understood then why the TV series was better. For it envoked a sense of nostalgia without overdoing it.

What the novel seemed to suggest was that with the channel tunnel England would lose its national identity. It would be unable to hold onto its traditions, No longer could you have even the possibility of fun and frolics Larkin style. Of course the great irony is that in real life the tunnel was built under the time of by the Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher but that on the UK side it was financed solely by private sector money.

This is pernicious propaganda. Envoking a sense of time and a lifestyle that probably didn't really exist and is reprehensible anyway.

Not the worst book I've read this year but the one I've hated the most.

So a new Penguin paperback is needed. The next one from the great unread is:

Olivia Manning - The Rain Forest

I've never read a book by this writer before so it should be interesting.

Until the next time.