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Original poster

Au reservoir! Anyone up for a Mapp and Lucia thread?

34 replies

Ohwhatfuckeryisthis · 29/07/2014 15:03

Bit of a cheat, at I'm watching it on TV ATM. They are my guilty pleasure, Dorothy Tutin was perfect as the divine Lucia. Anyone else?

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gailforce1 · 09/08/2014 14:09

Thanks bibliomania I am just finishing The Impossible Life of Mary Benson, certainly an interesting family! Please could someone tell me what order the Mapp and Lucia books need to be read in? TIA

StairsInTheNight · 09/08/2014 08:52

Mark Gatiss to be Major Benjy darlings!

Au reservoir! Anyone up for a Mapp and Lucia thread?
Original poster
Ohwhatfuckeryisthis · 09/08/2014 08:44

He also wrote, well, it's not horror I guess atmospherically spooky, stories, that retain his archness. So for hol I've got M&L omnibus and a collection of Saki stories which I think complement each other well.

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whitewineandchocolate · 09/08/2014 08:37

Thanks for the recommendation, just downloaded and they sound just my thing. I now need to read for about the next year to clear my kindle backlog!

ConcreteElephant · 08/08/2014 22:51

I'm just reading these at the moment - I have the DVD of the series, which is a little different but just brilliant all the same.

I also downloaded, very cheaply, some other E. F. Benson books - Paying Guests, Mrs Ames spring to mind. Wonderfully satirical and very much in line with the tone of Mapp and Lucia. I can recommend those highly.

Original poster
Ohwhatfuckeryisthis · 05/08/2014 22:13

Doesn't say, but they are filming in Rye this summer!

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Messygirl · 05/08/2014 20:13

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bibliomania · 01/08/2014 13:54

Ah, got you. Then enjoy!

MollyBdenum · 01/08/2014 10:35

Oh, I've fallen for them already. I posted earlier upthread that I didn't actually own a copy, but borrowed them several times a year from the library so it was time I got round to actually buying the books. I was very lucky get the amazing kindle bargain pointed out to me!

juliascurr · 31/07/2014 16:48

oh, those books! such a joy

bibliomania · 31/07/2014 16:44

Molly, that might be the best 77p you ever spent. They're not going to be everyone's taste, but if you fall for them, you'll fall hard....

bibliomania · 31/07/2014 16:43

Madrigals, they married, but "emphatically not for dynastic purposes". Separate bedrooms all the way. They have great affection for each other, but it's non-sexual.

gail, sorry, I gave the wrong title - it was As Good as God, but in fact it's been published under another name anyway, The Impossible Life of Mary Benson. It's by Rodney Bolt.

I did visit Rye expressly because of the Mapp & Lucia connection. Apparently there is a walking tour during the summer months, but I came too early in the year and missed it. Very sad. Lovely town though.

MollyBdenum · 31/07/2014 16:00

Thank you AuntieStella. I have just bought it. Mykindle last of books I've downloaded but not read consists entirely of ridiculously long omnibuses (I am currently 11% of the way through the Song of Ice and Fire omnibus, with another 50 hours of estimated reading time ahead of me).

gailforce1 · 31/07/2014 15:39

bibliomania I have just had a look on Amazon for Good as Gold, Clever as the Devil and could not find it. I did find that there was an E F Benson Society so going to google that later. Feel a trip to Rye coming on!

Messygirl · 31/07/2014 13:07

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AuntieStella · 31/07/2014 12:03

There is a Mapp and Lucia omnibus (all 6 books) currently for sale on Kindle for 77p.

bibliomania · 31/07/2014 11:53

Tom Holt did some follow-ups. They're not bad - he doesn't do anything grating. They lack the.....fairy dust of the original though.

gail, they're simply lovely. None of that horrible thing that Freud calls sex.

I also recommend the biography of E F Benson's mother, Good as Gold, Clever as the Devil. You understand more about a huge and very respectable Victorian family, where pretty much every member seemed to have a same sex preference.

MollyBdenum · 31/07/2014 10:51

I'm going to have to buy the books. I keep borrowing the omnibus from the library, but I don't actually own a copy.

IrenetheQuaint · 31/07/2014 10:03

Marking place...

AuntieStella · 30/07/2014 22:09

Psychic bidding is when you misstate the length/strength of your hand in contract bridge (so your partner has to be psychic to have any idea what you're up to).

Does Lucia do this as a sort of rarified strategy? Or is she perhaps Not As Good As She Pretends on bidding conventions?

Original poster
Ohwhatfuckeryisthis · 30/07/2014 19:28

That was the episode yesterday today was twatting commonwealth games. Pah.

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Laska42 · 30/07/2014 18:58

here is the (a) secret recipe for Lobster a la Riseholme..
Cant say I fancy it...

MollyBdenum · 30/07/2014 18:55

I'm very excited about the new series. Gemma Whelan (Yara in Game of Thrones) is going to be in it which makes it extra good.

Original poster
Ohwhatfuckeryisthis · 30/07/2014 18:50

Guy Sampson-Fraser apparently. (No me neither)
But look here! exciting no? I can see either Miranda or Anna as the divine Lucia.

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AlpacaLypse · 30/07/2014 18:42

They're on the same shelf as Dorothy L Sayers and Georgette Heyer's very best. 'Go to' books when I'm feeling shit and need cheering up. The characters have never dated.

Who wrote follow ups? I've read Jill Paton Walsh's Wimsey follow up stories, they're okay but not as good as the originals.