Since finishing Grass and The Wee Free Men, I have had a craving to re-read the Mapp and Lucia series by E.F. Benson. It is easy reading, but the characters are so deliciously snobbish and Benson cracks me up with his observations of smalltown middle-class antics set in the inter-war years (but never mentioning WWI or any war or real life politics at all). It’s perfect escapism.

I enjoyed the books the last time I read them, too, but I am catching so many more details on this re-read. It’s just delightful.

It does help, too, that I recently re-watched the tv adaptation penned by Steve Pemberton starring Anna Chancellor as Lucia, Miranda Richardson as Mapp, and Pemberton as Georgie. The tv adaptation does not exactly follow the books and mixes up some episodes that happen earlier in the books, but it is still perfect comfort watching.

Benson’s series consists of six books: Queen Lucia (1920), Miss Mapp (1922), Lucia in London (1927), Mapp and Lucia (1931), Lucia’s Progress (1935) and Trouble for Lucia (1939).

So, far, I have re-read the first two books and am in the middle of Lucia in London, which sees Emmeline Lucas (“Lucia”) and her husband flirt with the London life while trying to maintain their social position in Riseholm, their hometown.

Other than this, I have little news. Andy and I are enjoying the increase in daylight which means better walks, and I am finally getting some electrical work done in the flat on Tuesday. I have taken the day off, and seeing that I won’t have power, I might be able to read while the work is going on.