In general, the group tends to read contemporary novels, but occasionally we dip into the past and with our October choice, ‘Mapp and Lucia’ by E F Benson, we visited the fictional town of Tilling, closely modelled on the Sussex town of Rye, in 1930.
The two eponymous characters are brought together when Lucia hires Mapp’s house, ‘Mallards’, for the summer months, a rental which instigates a hierarchy of subsequent house rentals in the town. Both Mapp and Lucia are grotesque, hypocritical and snobbish characters who devote their daily lives to attempting to outdo each other. This power struggle manifests itself in the meanness of Mapp who, at every turn, is outwitted by Lucia’s cunning guile. Lucia, the consummate actress, is determined to impress her fellow ‘Tillingites’ with her constant invitations to bridge parties, dinners and tableaux and thus oust Mapp from her elevated position within the town.
The other characters are also larger than life and equally ridiculous. Georgie, Lucia’s effeminate friend who rents the nearby ‘Mallards Cottage’, is her devoted ally and a willing participant in all her ruses. The main ‘Tillingites’ are Major Benjy, who formerly served in India, Diva Plaistow, ‘full of absurd delicious fancies’, the Reverend Kenneth Bartlett, who speaks with a Scottish accent but is from Birmingham, Mr and Mrs Wyse, who use their Rolls-Royce to travel everywhere around the narrow streets of the town, and Quaint Irene, a painter and unconventional dresser.
This novel split the room as some group members really enjoyed the humour and the outrageous characters, while others found it trivial and far-fetched. However, everyone agreed that it was extremely well-written and that E F Benson captured perfectly that sector of 1930s society in his satire.
Louise Elsome
‘Bookworms’ Group Coordinator