Tea with Darling Miss Lucia and Miss Mapp

by Charlotte Reads Classics

Mapp and Lucia, E. F. Benson

I am so intrigued to find out how funny this kind of book is to people who aren’t English. I would describe Mapp and Lucia as quintessential English dry wit – very much the same vein as P. G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster books. Since reading this I have discovered it is actually number four in a series. I suppose this is the most readily available one as it contains the two main socialites Mrs Lucas and Miss Mapp jockeying for position.

 

I loved this – it was so light and made me chuckle out loud. I got so attached to the characters, which admittedly seems bizarre because they are all so awful! They roam around the 1930s countryside, renting each other’s houses, acting out Francis Drake’s knighthood in full regalia, painting, playing Mozart, pretending to speak Italian and continually trying to out do one another. The whole plot of the novel is basically centred on schemes to beat one’s social rival whilst pretending not to have those intentions at all.

I would definitely read some of the others when I wanted to read something cheerful and light.