When the Green Woods Laugh: H.E. Bates

`There!` Pop said. `There`s the house. There`s Gore Court for you. What about that, eh? How`s that strike you? Better than St Paul`s, ain`t it, better than St Paul`s?`

And so Pop Larkin - junk-dealer, family man and Dragon`s Blood connoisseur - manages to sell the nearby crumbling, tumbling country home to city dwellers Mr and Mrs Jerebohm for a pretty bundle of notes. Now he can build his daughter Mariette the pool she`s long been nagging him for.

But the Larkin`s new neighbours aren`t quite so accepting of country ways - especially Pop`s little eccentricities. In fact, it`s not long before a wobbly boat, a misplaced pair of hands and Mrs Jerebohm`s behind have Pop up before a magistrate . . .