RF Delderfield novels

Delderfield was a prolific writer who wrote popular history, mostly about the Napoleonic era and historical novels. The 2 Avenue novels are set from 1919, when World War One has just ended to the yaer or 2 after the end of the Second World War. To Serve them all my days and Diana cover a similar period. His Valley saga has 3 novels, and it dates from the end of the Boer war to the early 1960s. The story covers the life of Paul Craddock who is the son of a wealthy scrap merchant who has made a fortune in VIctorian London. Paul was never close to his father and did not like the scrap yard or London, and he decided to join the army when the Boer war broke out. He was injured and had to give up soldiering and when he was recovering from his injuries his father died and left him a fortune. Paul is a rather improbably good character but reasonably realistic. He is shy and naive, and doesnt know what to do with himself now that he's out of the army. He starts to think about making changes in his life and decides to look at an estate which is up for sale in Devon. He leaves his hosptial and talks to his father's business partner who tells him he could easily buy the estate but he should think about it. Paul knows that he is not someone who knows much about the country and he knows nothing about land management but he decides to go and look at the place. When he gets there he meets John Rudd a middle aged man who runs the estate for the owners, the Lovell family, but he dislikes his employers, thinking them lazy and bad landlords. He takes a liking to Paul and says that the estate while it is run down, could be profitable with a good man in charge.