Mapp & Lucia

Overview

Meet Mapp and Lucia—two of the most unpleasant, disgraceful women you're ever likely to encounter, in E.F. Benson's carefully observed tale of 1930s village life and social rankingEmmeline Lucas (known as Lucia to her friends) is emerging from mourning following the death of her husband. Pretentious, snobbish, and down-right devious, she feels her hometown of Riseholme offers no challenges and decides to vacation in the town of Tilling. She rents "Mallards" from Miss Mapp. The two women clash immediately. Miss Mapp is used to being top of the social ranking in Tilling, and there is no way she is going to let a vulgar outsider claim her position. So begins a battle of one-upmanship, peppered with queenly airs, ghastly tea parties, and unnerving bridge evenings as the two combatants attempt to out-do each other to win social supremacy. The pompous Lucia and malignant Mapp are characters you will love to hate, wonderfully penned by E.F. Benson. Darkly comic and witty, it is soon to be a new BBC series written by Steve Pemberton.

Reviews

"No matter how appalling, malicious and pretentious the behaviour of Lucia, the reader is always lured into a sense of affectionate complicity with this comic monster."  —Daily Telegraph

"Bitchily observant."  —Independent

"Sparkles with wicked wit."  —Sunday Times

Author Biography

E.F. Benson was an English novelist, biographer, archaeologist, and short-story writer, who wrote almost 100 books in his lifetime. Mapp & Lucia is the third book in the Mapp and Lucia series.