I am so glad to greet my friends.. Lucia will be along shortly and we will join you in reading this book.

I notice too that you are planning a Pilgrimmage to our country, I do hope you will stop by my village for tea. Ring me up when you get there.

I don't know what's keeping Lucia.

Now Mapp keep your britchers on, Lucia is prbably practicing some Mosartina while Georgie is visiting the Countess. And how is your strawberry patch - have you wintered it down well with straw - I'm enjoying some strawberry preserves and Deerling tea from Whitards and think of your wonderful homemade jellies while I enjoy my afternoon tea.

Au Reservoir

Mapp - It's so good to see you back. What's the news on Lucia? Have you had a tiff?

Where are all our honorary Tillingites?

Ginny

I am here but do not have the book in front of me, having read it [and all of them] sometime last year! If it hadn't been for Lucia, I don't think I'd have gotten through our move last year without violent depression! Hahaha!

Anyhow, as you jog my memory for the events that happened in this particular book, I may be able to offer a remark or two here and there. I do remember the ill-fated fete! Ill-fated until Lucia got there, that is! Now, Ginny, don't let me jump ahead and spoil this for the others...

Hey, Jeryn! Delighted to see you here! I know what you mean about the move and Lucia, for years I carried the books around with me when I traveled, they're strangely soothing, aren't they? I've literally read a couple of them into shreds.

Tell you what, I'll put some of the events in the heading which I'm still working on, yes that fete, Daisy as the Queen and suggeesting that Lucia might be Drake's WIFE! hahhahahahah

Is this the one, it is, I think, where she was in the garden supposedly reading Peppino's book which was tied with ribbons but the ribbons stuck, I'll go look that up what a hoot!

So glad to see you here!

Ginny

I love it - while she is in mourning she still excercises and hides it from her neighbors. A dominable force here in Lucia! While dear Georgie seems to go into the depression that you would have thought Lucia would experience. Did we ever see Daisy in the vidios? Looks like she knows she is going to be topped again by Lucia.

I'll try again to speak with you... Not easy sometimes.

This has been a fun read so far... I particularly liked the bit about Georgie worrying about if Lucia would ask him to marry, and she in turn concerned that Georgie would expect her to ask him...

But I like Lucia much better when she is out leading the local citizens...

I love this thinking on Lucia's part...

"Ah, you mustn't think hardly of poor dear Daisy,"..."Cheat is too strong a word. Just a little envious, perhaps, of bright clever things that other people say, not being very quick herself."

"Anyhow, I shall tell her that I know she has bagged my joke," said he.

My dear, not worthwhile. You'll make quatities of others. All too trivail, Georgie, not worth noticing. Beneath You."

It is not only a superior soul but a generous soul and a far look one, rather then looking at battles that could be pitched over past slights the lesson seems to be, always go forward with new challanges and the planning for skirmishes that may occur in getting those plans into action.

I'll tell you what, it takes a hide of iron too. How to deal with the insurgents and evil doers among us, that's the question? We always have them with us, there's no denying it. Yet in this situation, Lucia KNOWS that Daisy has no power, she, Lucia, has seen to that.

She has seen to that by seeing to it that the Guru and everything else Daisy tried has been trumped.

My post of yesterday disappeared, but I'd like to bring these two new considerations to your attention:

Who is at fault, here, right at the first? If YOU (I keep trying to picture myself in this setting) had likewise moved to Tilling, what would have been YOUR opinion of Mapp? Who, comparing Mapp and Lucia, is the most at "fault" for beginning the struggle?

I too thought the Georgie-Lucia thing was a hoot and the Benson newletter reports a similar mistake at the very same inn just happened and of course they all recalled the incident in the book. Can a man and woman just be friends? It's obvious Georgie would like for that to be the case! hahahahaha I thought the video here was hilarious! COULD Georgie and his bibelots and his wig have continued as they were indefinitely?

Don't want to get too far ahead, back in a moment for stuff for the headings.

Ginny

Dear Mapp: We will be spending the day of May 6th in Rye and will be looking for you to show us about in 'Tilling'.

There will be 4 of us and perhaps we can include some of our English friends to join us.

Looking forward to meeting you.

A GRAND reopening Day for our Mapp & Lucia discussions, the hold up was the HTML page photo retrospective, but it's now in place and hopefully working well.

I'm wondering what your take is on this tale? Do you think it's representative of small towns everywhere? Is there always a struggle for power? Was there anything in the text you didn't understand, there's a whole BENSON SOCIETY, LIst Serve and lots of avid Bensonites to give you aid!!

What are your thoughts on the book, the characters, or the setting? Please look thru the Photo Retrospective (very slow to load, go get a cuppa and rejoin) and tell us what you think?

So good to be back again!

Ginny

Read this before our winter sequestration of all things bright and beautiful. Loved reading the story and found it full and rich as compared to the vidios, although the vidios really brought the characters to life for me.

My favorite lines are tossed off by none other than our Lucia:

"My life hath crept so long on a broken wing."

I'm not going to creep any more.

I'm 'off' the age of Elizabeth...

But there were other ages

• the age of Pericles...Fancy sitting at Socrates's feet or Plato's and hearing them talk while the sun set over Salamis or Pentelicus. ...
  We must have the death of Agamemnon

  the age of Anne. what a wouderful time, Pope and Addison! So civilized, so cultivated...

it is a mistake to remain in the same waters too long.

There comes a tide in the affairs of men, which, if you don't nip it in the bud, leads on to boredom."

I've loved all that so much that I have declaired how I am not going to creep around anymore and furthered my little pin-up proverb by substituding my own ages that I'm 'off' and the ages I am wanting to persue as well as, what I am revering that leads to boredom!

I read and adored all the books eons ago.

Was disappointed in the last ones, as they sort of fell off in their overall excellence, the way so many series do.

At first, I just thought Lucia was deliciously hilarious, but I came to dislike her in the end.

I thought the first book definitely the best. And the biggest hoot was the names they put on all of the doors in their home: from Shakespeare plays. I loved the bedroom: Much Ado About Nothing. At least, that is the way I remember it. It has probably been 30 years since I read them.

My husband and I visited Broadway and lunched there and shopped there. We loved it, and some of my family lines came from that part of England. Missed Rye, though got close.

I cannot remember who I thought was to blame for the falling out, but it was probably Lucia. Just a guess, because I wound up not liking her. I think I related more to Mapp.

My dear friend, Mary Page. So delighted to know you... Of course, you can readily see that I tried so hard to help Lucia when she stopped in at Mallards for the season. She just did not appreciate my directing her to the proper places of activity... In the end, I hope the others here will realize, as you have, that I mean well and have a good heart.

Elizabeth Mapp

Mapp started out very very strangely, but later I did feel sorry for her since Lucia is a bit much most of the time and Mapp had been the undisturbed Queen for so long. Georgie is always the most interesting character to me..

I like Georgie too, he never seems to stoop to malice, he's always happy, he'd be a good friend. I feel for Mapp because she's always bested, but she herself does little nasty things that Lucia would not. She pockets the extra rent for HER house but doesn't share it with the others and she sent back those pictures which was awful! She also put Georgie's nice art in the 5p basket at her rubbish sale, not very nice at all.

So why IS it then that we like her better? Is it because Lucia seems to self confident? Nobody is confident all the time and in fact, in the later books she loses her confidence, those books are worth reading.

I, too, like her attitude about always trying in life, most of the time that is. She took her little town there and did try to make a difference, the almond trees, the gun tower, (is this the one with the church organ, that was a hoot) and then they float out to see over Lobster a La Riseholme! hahahahaha

That Grebe is today a Bed and Breakfast and I've got a picture of it, will put in tomorrow, it's VERY pretty.

Rye itself is beautiful, "Mallards" is only open twice a week for very limited hours. The Garden Room is gone, a casualty of WWII. Do take a bit to look at the photo retrospective.

I am not sure, if I lived in a town, which one of those ladies I could get along with, I believe I would get along better with Mapp. Lucia seems to be a snob, doesn't she or does she?

Ginny

Yes, I think I could chum with Mapp, BUT I had better watch that I didn't get on the outs with Lucia, or my social life would be "zilch".

And Stephanie and Ginny.  I so appreciate your moral support.
Lucia is probably a good person, but she does seem to bring out the worst in me.

PS And Pat, yes, I'll be chums with you.

Here is the perfectly charming internet ad for GREBE, and a photo of it and a modest and humorous claim to fame: Grebe today (Lucia's house from whence she sailed away on a kitchen table)

Didn't you LOVE the scenes with Georgie and the cenotaph?

I just love Benson's style in this book.

Ginny

I have been bereft for weeks, ever since I completed the entire Benson series. I've lost my dearest friends and my bests chuckles. We can see so much of ourselves in those heroines of Tilling and Risenholme.

I clearly identify with Lucia as an organizer, shaker and mover. But not as a queen, (as a princess?) Pettiness has never been my strong suit, but don't we know some who drown in it?

But Irene, Oh Irene - I do adore her independence and individuality. What a wonderful foil against Mapp and Lucia. How very clever.

I am not at home - as soon as I get back from the country I'll dig out the tome and review events, so that I can chuckle again with all of you.

Au Resevoir mes amis, Louise

Louise, Lucia was an organizer, shaker and mover for sure well put Louise.

I can relate to Mapps as having to do the best she could, but a sly one who thought she was in control with the Rent. I LOL when Mapps and Lucia became friends on a table in the water and what they came home to.

This was all a beautiful piece of work to me.

Ginger

Louise, have you read the two sequels by Tom Holt? They are quite good in fact they are marvelous. Tom Holt is an author in his own right, and the son of the mystery novelist Hazel Holt. Apparently they all live in Rye or near it as they seem to be always there.

When you go this spring you realy ought to go out and take the Rye Walks Tour given on Wed and Sat by the Benson Society, you can even go IN Mallards!

You are the only person I've met who liked IRENE!! I love that.

Ginger, you are right, they did have a meeting of the minds but how soon parted, I thought it was a hoot when they were walking up the street and paused by the cenotaph to notice that Mapp's name was exceedingly small! hahahahahaa

And there was Major Benjy living in the house. What a hoot!!! And Georgie was holding faithfully firm.

But then immediately a rivalry sprang up over the memories of the Gallagher Bank and who would tell the tale, wasn't it funny the two different versions?

hahahahahaa

Now do we believe Lucia "shrieked" or not as the table went out to sea? The whole thing is a hoot!

Ginny

Here's a nice treat by way of the Benson List Serve, some very fine people who are true EF Benson enthusiasts on the Internet. Here is a photo of 25 Brompton Square which, as you recall, was Lucia's house which Peppino inherited in London? There was also one of the music room which I did not bring here. It was also EF Benson's house as is shown in these ubiquitous plaques all over London which identify the homes of the famous.

I d like to see this house, it's very pretty, I'd like to see Brompton Square. These photos were taken by Robert Ross, known as "Georgie" on the List Serve (we all take names from the novels, I'm Daisy). Very nice people all around, but you would expect that from EF Benson fans.

Ginn....er Daisy

My mental pictures of the two women on the table are truly funny. Queen Bees of this type generally do not deal well with adversity, but he decided to make them stronger than the usual and I have always been grateful.. Both Lucia and Mapp have an inner strength that is quite unusual for that era.

Well my goodness! We've lost some posts, must have had a crash! Phooey!!!

I came in to say I'm watching the SECOND set of the Mapp & Lucia saga! This was never shown in America and it's very interesting!

I've heard the British like it better, I really didn't like the first few episodes (there are a LOT of episodes on the tapes) but I suddenly realized that Geoffrey Chater who plays Major Benjy and Nigel Hawthorne who plays Georgie had totally changed their characters or put an edge on their characters that wasn't there.

You remember Georgie grew a beard, well he did and with it he grew some impatience at Lucia, never more seen than when she plays the organ at the dedication? (Not sure if this is in the Mapp & Lucia, I have read it so many times!)

But he's to play the pedals and he's totally bored. Little remarks? And he plays with his arms disgustedly folded over his chest, it's an entire new Georgie and a more serious one. I like him a lot.

Likewise Major Benjy is excellent, he's got an expanded part and he's really quite good.

It'a amost a new ensemble have any of you seen it?

---

Studying Italian somewhat hysterically, I learned what ragazzo means! Lucia calls Georgie "ragazzo," (sp) and it means a lad? A boy but over 10 years old. Remember how Georgie always thinks of himself as the jeune fils of the town? That's what that means.

---

I'm thinking but don't know for sure that cattivo means clever?

---

Now that Elizabeth in the second set of films is married, she's speaking French and Lucia is speaking Italian and it's a hoot.

---

Mapp & Lucia and all the Lucia novels make great travel reading, always light always amusing and non threatening.

---

Stephanie, why did that table not sink? I've wondered that quite a bit!

Ginny

Stephanie, Ginny, I to wondered how the table floated. What wood was it ect. Ginger

Because most tables, Ginger, are not made of one solid piece of wood, are they? And so it's hard to visualize two women standing one one and it not sinking?

Was for me anyway, especially when you consider what a storm it was? Visibility so poor that...was it Keith...thought it was "sea serpents a frolicking?"

I just read in THE GOOD EARTH tho that in the flood THEY had, they piled their tables (shades of Lucia) and stuff on their DOORS and used them for boats, so if a door can be a boat I guess a table can too!

Ginny

Ginny I think the tables might have been one solid piece for the top, but it would be so heavy?

Ginger

Because most tables, Ginger, are not made of one solid piece of wood, are they? And so it's hard to visualize two women standing one one and it not sinking?

Was for me anyway, especially when you consider what a storm it was? Visibility so poor that...was it Keith...thought it was "sea serpents a frolicking?"

I just read in THE GOOD EARTH tho that in the flood THEY had, they piled their tables (shades of Lucia) and stuff on their DOORS and used them for boats, so if a door can be a boat I guess a table can too!

Ginny

Ginny, What ever it was it was so funny. I did enjoy it very much with all the rivilrey.

Ginger

Tables do float.. if they're made of wood... We used to ride a door around the pond, and it would support 4 kids...

Pat W.,WOW That does explain all.

Now four kids on a table is funny... Yes, I would have thought it would sink,, but we have cardboard boat races in Orlando once a year, and it is surprising how long they will float.. Mapp after marriage did change ,,,, but I did not notice in the books Georgie getting braver.. Will have to look for it.

We're going to have to pass that second set of Mapp & Lucia tapes around when we get back because they are so interesting. I like Georgie much better with a beard.

Olga Braceley also makes her appearance in this series and she's just awful. I would never have understood HER to be Olga, just awful.

Poppy Sheffield, the Duchess, however is really well done.

Some liberties with the book for those who read closely, but very interesting over all.

I was wrong, too, it was DENNIS LILL who plays Major Benjy who is so good in the second series, Geoffrey Chater does very little, he's Mr. Wyse.

In reading the very last of Benson's books right after seeing the last tape I'm struck again how marvelously Benson writes and how easily he describes things, painting a picture forever in the mind.

I can't WAIT to see his home , Lamb House, ("Mallards") if we DO get in, will bring you all a picture!!

Ciao till after Mother's Day,

Ginny

Please ,please someone enlighten me with MAPP & LUCIA i've just recently joined,I'd term as your.BOOKS A PLENTY,disscussions.I love it & just can't get enough, i dont know how I have come this far along the litary path & not stumbled on these two obviously interesting characters. I must get to know them with your help,many thanks,Estell

I love that, Estell, that's perfect!! The Mapp & Lucia series was a PBS series which I have and would be happy to mail you based on book IV of the EF Benson "Lucia" series. The writing is marvelous and very.....well it's something you have to experience for yourself. If you like, email me and I'll send you the videos or you can check your library for the first book called LUCIA IN LONDON and begin on your own. If you like drawing room comedy, Edwardian manners, then you'll love Benson, a man who lived the life he wrote. (And whose giardino segreto was unbelievable!!!)

Several of us have just returned from our trip to England and tho we caught the plague there we also visited Rye itself and had a tour from the Secretary of the Benson Society and got some great photos and information. I loved it. Stay tuned for next week and we'll put a few in the header.

Meanwhile, if there's anything I can do to encourage a Luciaphil, please let me know, you will be in the presence of legions, alive and dead, who adored him.

Anxious to hear how you like it,

ginny

Ginny thankyou so much for the Post, I shall enquire at our library tomorrow,re Lucia in London.If i dont have any luck,i may take you up on your kind offer, i will send a money order to you ,as NZ., is a long way away,& postage is not cheap.However i shall endevour to find what i can here first. Your trip to London must have been just great.I hope to make it over there one day in not too distant future.regards Estell.

Ginny did you know that E.F.Benson was made Mayor of Rye in 1934?

I do not believe this was fiction as it is every day life just think about it and come back.

Sorry, I've been off. THREE TIMES Mayor of Rye, Miss Judy, yes he was. There's a plaque in his pew in the church (oh we had SUCH a great tour of Rye) and it says something like" Brave sufferer, author, three times mayor of Rye," or something like that, he had crippling arthritis at the last.

Ginger, you are so right, I think that it's pretty well accepted that most of Benson's characters are composites of real people he met who stuck in his mind. Sometimes he'd combine traits in people, a lot of people thought they saw themeslves in his books. He was an astute observer of people.

---

I must tell you, Pat W has some fabulous photos of Rye and I have one of herself in front of "Mallards." Will TRY to get them in the heading soon here.

But I must say, I just HAD to run IN "Mallards," (Lamb House, Rye) when it opened at 2, even though we were meeting our guide Rebecca at that time, because I just HAD to go in there. And the gardens at the rear of the house, you wouldn't BELIEVE. Here's this ....LOT...but it's big, I think they said it's about an acre, here you go down the steps from the house, turn left and right THERE was the Garden Room which of course is gone now, bombed out in WWII.

But if you turn right when you come out the house you enter sort of a cool walkway around the bigger lawn, which is totally secluded, it's wonderful. You are all by yourself, it's so fine, and I did see the entrance to the Giardino Segreto (I think) which has been closed up and it's SOOOOO wonderfully romantic looking and you just walk and turn left at the wall and the garden, sort of a side garden keeps widening (keep in mind the big lawn is in the center) and widening and it's just MARVELOUS.

I just loved it will put some photos of it in here ASAP~

Gives you more of a feeling for the books if you go there!

ginny

OH PAT!!! How marvelous, yes, of course, Servant of God first. I thought that was on his tombstone, how disappointed I was to see only his dates and his name misspelled, oh isn't that wonderful! And you can see Friend to this church and the town, that's in the church, isn't it?

Thank you so much! Put the rest of yours up we'll add them to the heading photos!!!

Maybe make a new photo album, a personal pilgrimage!

ginny

Pat: That was so clear and big Thank you. You sure know how to do things. Ginger

I bought them, I bought them-- both sets of Mapp and Lucia vidios-- what is that music that starts and ends each episode does anyone know?

Barb, no, but I love it. You would have LOVED to hear Alan Downend of the Benson Society's Tour, they have spent a long time trying to decide WHICH house served as a model for what. I must get some of those photos up here!!!

Can't wait to hear what you think of the new Georgie in the second series, you need to watch the first two tapes in the second series to give him a chance to settle in in your mind, he's so different!

ginny

RUN don't walk, over to the England 2000 Photo Retrospective where you will see photos of EF Benson's real garden (Mallards) and see the entrance to the Giardino Segreto going up in a second!!

ginny

I have been trying to locate 'MAPP&LUCIA'during the last month, but to no avail I'm afraid!!How ever there is light at the end of the tunnel, my daughter Lisa.,is in LA at the moment , I emailed her & she is going look around for me. Our book stores all said the same thing ,'required books out of print', but could still be on sale in America.Yes i could go to the library, but i do like to collect good books & hopefully leave a feast of reading for the family one day. Lets hope it wont be too long & i can enjoy 'MAPP & LUCIA', CHEERS ESTELL.

In the right hand box above that says "Click to buy the book" You may order one from Barnes & Noble either or the Internet or by Phone ( would assume). Or perhaps order from a Barnes&Noble near you if you have one.