The BBC Radio 4 dramatisation

Queen Lucia

Barbara Jefford is the hilariously outrageous Lucia in this BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of the novel by E.F. Benson.

Barbara Jefford is the hilariously outrageous Lucia in this BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of the novel by E.F. Benson. Lucia is the uncrowned queen of 1920s provincial society, the Everest of social climbers and the most delicious of snobs. In the pastoral serenity of the village of Riseholme, Lucia and her unforgettable cronies face up to an Indian guru, spiritualism and a cultural usurper. 
 
E.F. Benson's wickedly witty satires on the rivalries of English middle-class life have elevated Lucia's extravagant exploits to cult comedy status.

Queen Lucia, Miss Mapp and Mapp and Lucia

Mapp and Lucia Omnibus

The official TV tie-in edition to the new three-part BBC1 adaptation of E.F Benson's hilarious Mapp &amp; Lucia novels

The Blotting Book

READ ALL AGATHA CHRISTIE? TRY A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
A violent murder disturbs the high society of Edwardian Brighton in this masterful whodunnit from the author of Mapp and Lucia

This novel, one of the progenitors of the classic British mystery, bristles with elegant suspense as it ushers its upper-class characters from their mansions to the harsh reality of a criminal courtroom

MORE VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERIES 
 MARGERY ALLINGHAM 
Mystery Mile 
Police at the Funeral 
Sweet Danger 
Flowers for the Judge 
The Case of the Late Pig 
The Fashion in Shrouds 
Traitor’s Purse 
Coroner’s Pidgin 
More Work for the Undertaker 
The Tiger in the Smoke 
The Beckoning Lady 
Hide My Eyes 
The China Governess 
The Mind Readers 
Cargo of Eagles 
 
E. F. BENSON 
The Blotting Book 
The Luck of the Vails 
 
NICHOLAS BLAKE 
A Question of Proof 
Thou Shell of Death 
There’s Trouble Brewing 
The Beast Must Die 
The Smiler With the Knife 
Malice in Wonderland 
The Case of the Abominable Snowman 
Minute for Murder 
Head of a Traveller 
The Dreadful Hollow 
The Whisper in the Gloom 
End of Chapter 
The Widow’s Cruise 
The Worm of Death 
The Sad Variety 
The Morning After Death 
 
EDMUND CRISPIN 
Buried for Pleasure 
The Case of the Gilded Fly 
Holy Disorders 
Love Lies Bleeding 
The Moving Toyshop 
Swan Song 
 
A. A. MILNE 
The Red House Mystery 
 
GLADYS MITCHELL 
Speedy Death 
The Mystery of a Butcher’s Shop 
The Longer Bodies 
The Saltmarsh Murders 
Death and the Opera 
The Devil at Saxon Wall 
Dead Men’s Morris 
Come Away, Death 
St Peter’s Finger 
Brazen Tongue 
Hangman’s Curfew 
When Last I Died 
Laurels Are Poison 
Here Comes a Chopper 
Death and the Maiden 
Tom Brown’s Body 
Groaning Spinney 
The Devil’s Elbow 
The Echoing Strangers 
Watson’s Choice 
The Twenty-Third Man 
Spotted Hemlock 
My Bones Will Keep 
Three Quick and Five Dead 
Dance to Your Daddy 
A Hearse on May-Day 
Late, Late in the Evening 
Fault in the Structure 
Nest of Vipers

Edward Frederic Benson was born on July 24, 1867 in Berkshire, the son of a future Archbishop of Canterbury, and one of six children. He studied at Kings College, Cambridge and at the British School of Archaeology in Athens. Benson's first book, Dodo, was published to popular acclaim in 1893 and was followed by over a hundred books, including novels, histories, biographies and ghost stories. In 1920 Benson became a full-time tenant of Lamb House in Rye, which had once been home to the novelist Henry James. Rye provided the setting for the Mapp and Lucia stories and their author served three terms as mayor of Rye in the late 1930s. E.F. Benson died on February 29, 1940.

A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
WH Auden, Nancy Mitford and Noel Coward were among his fans... But have you discovered E. F. Benson yet? 
 
Morris Assheton is in love and means to be married. But his happiness is spoilt when he discovers that someone has been whispering poisonous rumours about him to the girl’s father. The culprit is Mills, dastardly partner to the Assheton family's trusted lawyer. Morris vows revenge. 
 
When Mills’ body is discovered, brutally beaten, the ugly quarrel comes to light and suspicion naturally falls on Morris. His innocence is debated in a tense courtroom, as an eager public and press look on. 
 
Murder mystery... Courtroom drama. This is a classic whodunnit from the author of Mapp and Lucia. Crime fiction at its best.

The Luck of the Vails

READ ALL AGATHA CHRISTIE? TRY A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
Downton Abbey meets The Woman in Black - the author of Mapp and Lucia proves himself a master of murder mystery and country-house crime.

A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
WH Auden, Nancy Mitford and Noel Coward were among his fans... But have you discovered E. F. Benson yet? 
 
In a Holbein portrait above the grand old fireplace, Francis Vail, second baronet, brandishes a beautiful golden goblet, encrusted with pearls, rubies and emeralds. But this treasure, the Luck of the Vails, has since brought the family nothing but ruin and death. 
 
On the eve of his twenty-first birthday, Harry Vail discovers the Luck hidden in the attic of his ancestral home, the family curse is reawoken, and a tale of madness, avarice and murder unfolds. 
 
Murder mystery... Ghost story... Whodunnit. This is a classic detective story from the author of Mapp and Lucia. Crime fiction at its best.

Mapp And Lucia

At last they meet – the two most formidable ladies in English literature collide in genteel and deadly enmity. Lucia shakes the dust of Riseholme from her elegant feet and, with Georgie Pilson as devoted courtier, prepares to conquer the high society of Tilling. And Miss Mapp, her features corrugated by chronic rage and curiosity, can only prepare to defend her position as doyenne of Tilling. The town is split in an exciting and scintillating war of garden parties, bridge evenings and staggeringly simple little dinners. Mapp and Lucia is the fourth of the Lucia novels, a chronicle of life in two English country towns described with malicious delicacy and wit.

Mapp and Lucia

Battle is joined! Relish the underhand schemes and plots that unfold as Lucia vyes with Miss Mapp for social dominion over the town of Tilling.

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

Bitchily observant novel of small-town life

Sparkles with wicked wit...provides some pointed digs at social one- upmanship and the genteelly disguised venality of the upper classes. But, on another level, it can be hugely enjoyed as class-war subversion

The pleasure of Mapp and Lucia is summed up, surely, in Alice Roosevelt's bon mot. "If you have nothing good to say about anybody, come and sit right by me."

Oh the joy of seeing Lucia again! These magic books are as fresh as paint. The characters are real and therefore timeless

Look out for the new BBC adaptation starring Anna Chancellor, Miranda Richardson and Mark Gatiss! 
 
Miss Elizabeth Mapp reigns supreme over the village of Tilling...until the advent of Mrs Emmeline Lucas, or 'Lucia' to her friends. No one could compete, surely, with Lucia's formidable armoury: her duchesses, her Italian, her financial speculations, her celebrated recipe for Lobster à la Riseholme. But Mapp will not relinquish her supremacy in local society so easily, and battle is joined between these two indomitable queens and their rather fickle allies.

E F Benson

Mark Gatiss

This collection, selected by that connoisseur of the eldritch, Mark Gatiss, contains enough nastiness to give you just the right kind of frisson for the time of year.

Ghost Stories collects nine of his most gruesome stories… Impressively shocking.

Spooks galore in E.F. Benson’s nightmare-inducing stories.

Selected and Introduced by Mark Gatiss

Sherlock star Mark Gatiss selects and introduces chilling tales by the unsung master of the classic ghost story - E.F. Benson. 
 
There's nothing sinister about a London bus. Nothing supernatural could occur on a busy Tube platform. There's nothing terrifying about a little caterpillar. And a telephone, what could be scary about that? Don't be frightened of the dark corners of your room. Don't be alarmed by a sudden, inexplicable chill. There's no need for a ticking clock, a limping footstep, or a knock at the door to start you trembling. There's nothing to be scared of. Nothing at all.

E F Benson

Praise for Ghost Stories

This collection, selected by that connoisseur of the eldritch, Mark Gatiss, contains enough nastiness to give you just the right kind of frisson for the time of year.

Ghost Stories collects nine of his most gruesome stories… Impressively shocking.

Spooks galore in E.F. Benson’s nightmare-inducing stories.

This collection, selected by that connoisseur of the eldritch, Mark Gatiss, contains enough nastiness to give you just the right kind of frisson for the time of year.

Ghost Stories collects nine of his most gruesome stories… Impressively shocking.

Spooks galore in E.F. Benson’s nightmare-inducing stories.

This collection, selected by that connoisseur of the eldritch, Mark Gatiss, contains enough nastiness to give you just the right kind of frisson for the time of year.

Ghost Stories collects nine of his most gruesome stories… Impressively shocking.

Spooks galore in E.F. Benson’s nightmare-inducing stories.

Books by E F Benson

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