Mapp and Lucia

 E.F. Benson 1867-1940

During the increased opportunity for reading with the expanded time available during Lockdown and the current post-Lockdown, I came across an omnibus edition of three of E.F. Benson’s Mapp and Lucia books which I first met at the end of the Eighties I think, courtesy of my husband who was a total fan. I have just re-read this wonderful three books-in-one, Lucia Victrix comprising Mapp and Lucia, Lucia’s Progress and Trouble for Lucia, a volume inhospitably large to read while also attempting to balance a glass or a cup of coffee on the terrace. I love the bold announcement on the front cover:

“We will pay anything for Lucia books.” Noel Coward; Gertrude Lawrence; Nancy Mitford; W.H. Auden. That signals the high level cult which grew around the Mapp and Lucia books during the 1920s and 1930s when the artistic and literary communities in Britain became entranced with the comedic characters in the Lucia stories of E.F. Benson.

 The Benson Brothers
1907

His fictional world has character, situation, prose, which feeds the glorious satire he produces, both through then-current social obsessions like health fads, plus the ridiculously and wonderfully overblown social surveillance of communal life in Tilling. He demonstrates skilfully what can be achieved when characters are gathered together to do battle over their own flaws and insecurities.

 Prunella Scales as Miss Mapp and
Genevieve McEwan as Lucia in the
1985 BBC production.

Benson’s main sublime characters were introduced in two separate books; Queen Lucia in 1920 and Miss Mapp in 1922 but his decision to bring the two together on a social collision course was a stroke of genius. Separately, the two ‘ladies’ thrive but by uniting these two extraordinary characters into one saga, Benson enables the creation of a truly high standard of literary humour. Lucia decides to leave Riseholme, the little town where she has reigned as undisputed Queen for many years, following the death of her husband, Peppino, and take up first temporary, then permanent, residence in Tilling, along with Georgie, her dear, outrageously-dressed, camp friend and confidante who also manages to find a suitable dwelling for himself. They decide to bid Au reservoir [ the famous Tillingite goodbye] to Riseholme to conquer fields anew.

Their arrival sparks intentions in Miss Mapp, hitherto Queen of all she surveyed, to gather in the newcomers without condescension, so that she can present them to her admirers in town and thus

 Tilling, shown in a photograph of Rye, East Sussex.

underline her own social superiority, but Lucia immediately, artlessly but artfully, sets about establishing her own regal presence in the town. The battle between the two ‘ladies’ is riveting to spectators and readers alike, as teas, dinners, pot-luck suppers, art shows, callisthenic classes, fund-raising fetes and bridge evenings, become the battleground for the sublime yet savage social battle to range. The apparent self-sufficiency and tranquillity of Tilling is a world in itself, where the inhabitants quietly know Everything about each other but politely rarely challenge each other, relying on hugely relished social gossip to keep abreast of happenings and developments. The social surveillance involved in Tilling’s communal life is effortlessly and entertainingly portrayed. The peace and perfection of the place offer a boundless theatre for countless vicious social battles to be enacted. One should mention that Tilling is a very thinly-disguised Rye in East Sussex, where Benson lived for many years in Lamb House, and where, like Lucia, he served as Mayor.

The Benson family were eminent Victorians, all high achievers and almost certainly homosexual. The father, Edward, who was not, progressed quickly up the clerical hierarchy and, via the Chancellorship of Lincoln Cathedral and the Bishopric of Truro, he became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1883. His wife, Minnie, to whom he proposed when she was 11 and he, 23, had a number of romantic affairs with other women while bearing her husband six children. Those offspring who

 The Garden Room, Lamb House, Rye,
the model for Mallards in Tilling.
Destroyed by a German bomb in August 1940.

reached adulthood, were all incredibly successful, distinguishing themselves in public life. Arthur became Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge; wrote the lyrics of Edward Elgar’s hymn, Land of Hope and Glory; and co-edited Queen Victoria’s letters for publication. His brother, Fred, of Mapp and Lucia fame, also wrote a formidable and successful array of fiction, including ghost stories. Sister Margaret became an amateur pioneering Egyptologist and the first woman to lead an archaeological dig with subsequent publication of her findings. Younger brother Hugh, became a notable Roman Catholic, was considered a magnetic preacher and was also a best-selling author. Altogether, the family published more than 200 volumes.

 Discovering the initial delights of Tilling.

Father Edward invited his wife’s lover, Lucy Tait, daughter of the previous Archbishop of Canterbury, to live with them and three years after his death, Minnie moved house with Lucy, still her lover, and Minnie’s daughter, Margaret, the Egyptologist, came to live with them, bringing her female lover. An extraordinary and gifted family in many ways; reliably eccentric and always able to disregard social attitudes which did not suit them. But perhaps one might claim that it is Fred's, E.F. Benson's, literary legacy which has burned longest and brightest.

 Oil painting of West Street, Rye
showing the admirably-placed
Garden room window.
Artist: Ellen Emmet Rand 1875-1941