He is sitting outside the Hebridean-style hut at the heart of his Wharfedale smallholding, with his beekeeping kit set aside while he tunes his fiddle.

And on a ledge beside him are a glass of wine, a loaf of bread, and a book of verse, as recommended in the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam, the 12th-century Persian poem which travelled with him as a piper in the Gordon Highlanders.

A friend clicked the shutter and the picture is now the cover of his memoir, Buckets Of Honey from Boxes Of Bees – £9.95 from Northern Bee Books of Mytholmroyd.

After the army, Mr Pickles spent 20 years as the policeman for Addingham, Bolton Abbey, Beamsley and Draughton. Then, for a while, he was a professional bee far-mer, running up to 150 colonies on the Wharfedale heather.

Now, aged 70, he takes a little honey from a few remaining hives but prefers, he says, to listen to and watch them at work for themselves on the five-acre smallholding, near his home in Addingham.

The book is a collection of reminiscences going back to the beginnings of his interest – searching for wasp nests to get grubs from for fishing. Its theme is that beekeepers should watch more and interfere less.

The founder of Northern Bee Books, Jeremy Burbidge, reckons he stocks the widest range of bee books and magazines in the world. Call 01422 882751, email sales@recordermail.demon.co.uk or see website at http://tinyurl.com/yzcrwoa/

Picture: Hilary Simpson