Beaufort Books » E.F. Benson http://www.beaufortbooks.com Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:30:09 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Trouble for Lucia http://www.beaufortbooks.com/2009/08/trouble-for-lucia/ http://www.beaufortbooks.com/2009/08/trouble-for-lucia/#comments Sun, 30 Aug 2009 18:51:50 +0000 Beaufort Books http://www.beaufortbooks.com/?p=2096 Benson_Trouble_bowIn Trouble for Lucia, Lucia learns to ride a bicycle and we live through the saga of Blue Birdie (Mrs. Wyse’s dead budgerigar [parakeet] invoked in a seance). Lucia and Georgie renew their acquaintance with the operatic diva Olga Braceley and the composer Cortese, but nobody in Tilling believes her when she claims to have entertained a duchess overnight. Lucia becomes Mayor of Tilling and Miss Mapp is appointed her Mayoress. This is the sixth volume in the “Lucia” series, and Lucia is back with sass, class, and a fantastic campaign.

Praise for Trouble for Lucia

“If you become a Luciaphile–and of course you will–you’ll be in the company of Noel Coward, Gertude Lawrence, W.H. Auden and Cyril Richard.”

- Detroit News

About the Author: E. F. Benson

ISBN: 978-1-55921-298-4
240 pages
$12.95

Buy It Now:

Amazinlogobn_logopowellsbooks_logo

]]> http://www.beaufortbooks.com/2009/08/trouble-for-lucia/feed/ 0 Lucia’s Progress http://www.beaufortbooks.com/2009/08/lucias-progress/ http://www.beaufortbooks.com/2009/08/lucias-progress/#comments Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:54:32 +0000 Beaufort Books http://www.beaufortbooks.com/?p=2085 Benson_Progress_mpLucia and Mapp’s amusing adventures in Tilling continue in Lucia’s Progress. The redoubtable pair stand unsuccessfully for election to the Town Council. Lucia enters a too-chaste marriage with Georgie. And after a house swap with the infamous Miss Mapp, Lucia redecorates, only to discover — and then hide — the remains of a Roman villa!

Praise for Lucia’s Progress

“These stories are addictive!”                                                                                                                             - Boston Globe

“Benson created a small-scale world that is a pleasure to enter. More than fifty years after the first of them appeared, these books are fresh and funny…”

- Newsweek

About the Author: E.F. Benson

ISBN: 978-1-55921-233-5
240 pages
$11.95

Buy It Now:

Amazinlogobn_logopowellsbooks_logo

]]> http://www.beaufortbooks.com/2009/08/lucias-progress/feed/ 0 Mapp & Lucia http://www.beaufortbooks.com/2009/08/mapp-lucia/ http://www.beaufortbooks.com/2009/08/mapp-lucia/#comments Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:45:49 +0000 Beaufort Books http://www.beaufortbooks.com/?p=2078 Benson_Mapp&Lucia_mpMapp & Lucia is the fourth installment,  and a hilarious study of 1930′s manners and the pecking order in the fictional English village of Tilling. Having long ago conquered the timid town of Riseholme, Emmeline “Lucia” Lucas finds herself rather bored and so rents a summer place in Tilling. To be specific, she rents the home of Miss Elizabeth Mapp, queen of all she surveys from her garden window. Immediately the gauntlet is thrown down as the two would-be arbiters of good taste battle it out over excruciatingly endless musicales, phony Italian conversation and bad homemade art. Assisted by her aide-de-camp Georgie, a supremely fussy and utterly cowed sidekick, Lucia marches in…but Mapp is not without her supporters, or her binoculars.

Praise for Mapp & Lucia

“The six Lucia novels form a kind of epic portrait of striving gone mad, and it’s good to have them appearing once again.”

- Kirkus Reviews

About the Author: E.F. Benson

ISBN: 978-1-55921-232-8
288 pages
$12.95

Buy It Now:

Amazinlogobn_logopowellsbooks_logo

]]> http://www.beaufortbooks.com/2009/08/mapp-lucia/feed/ 0 Miss Mapp http://www.beaufortbooks.com/2009/08/miss-mapp/ http://www.beaufortbooks.com/2009/08/miss-mapp/#comments Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:35:52 +0000 Beaufort Books http://www.beaufortbooks.com/?p=2071 Benson_Miss_Mapp_mpLike his famous Lucia character, E.F. Benson’s Miss Mapp is a strikingly original comic creation, an arch-schemer and social climber from the British town of Tilling. A fortyish spinster, “anger and the gravest suspicion about everybody had kept her young and on the boil.” Elizabeth Mapp spends her days looking out the window of her home, using opera glasses and a notebook to chart her neighbors affairs. Nothing escapes her as she spies on Major Benjamin Flint (who she has been trying to marry for years,) Captain Puffin, “Quaint Irene”, a free-spirited artist, and the underhanded Miss Susan Poppet, a woman plotting to purchase the ingredients of Miss Mapp’s secret iced red-currant recipe. Miss Mapp is a hilarious, sharply-observed satire that lovingly—but pointedly—pokes fun at the feuds and foibles of English high society.

Praise for Miss Mapp

“This latest book is clever, as all that [Benson] does is clever, light, amusing, satirical, written in the smooth and easy style his earlier books have made familiar to us. Its people are real: one acknowledges their verisimilitude, and is deeply, humbly grateful to that beneficent fortune which was so kind as to cast one’s lot elsewhere than in Tilling, the home of Miss Mapp.” - The New York Times

About the Author: E.F. Benson

ISBN: 978-1-55921-275-5
240 pages
$11.95

Buy It Now:

Amazinlogobn_logopowellsbooks_logo

]]> http://www.beaufortbooks.com/2009/08/miss-mapp/feed/ 0 Lucia in London http://www.beaufortbooks.com/2009/08/lucia-in-london/ http://www.beaufortbooks.com/2009/08/lucia-in-london/#comments Sun, 23 Aug 2009 20:58:55 +0000 Beaufort Books http://www.beaufortbooks.com/?p=2063 Benson_Luica_London_mpLucia in London is the second installment of the Lucia series. After her husband’s Auntie Amy dies and leaves her London home to Lucia and her sweet but dull husband, Peppino, the Queen of English provincial society attempts to conquer London. Using her best social climbing instincts, nerves of steel, and an absolute inability to be embarrassed, Lucia dresses up “tightum” and prepares to mingle with the beau monde. She skillfully manages to get into London’s fanciest parties without being invited, and somehow coaxes the most distinguished and wealthiest guests to come to tea. A secret society of “Luciaphils” springs up in London, among society members who never tire of watching Lucia get into, and out of, all kinds of trouble. Both a sharply observed social commentary and a masterful comic novel, Lucia in London is a thoroughly enjoyable work from one of England’s most gifted satirical authors.

Praise for Lucia in London

“Lucia is vital, she has enormous will-power and determination, she is life-enhancing and she is somehow magnificent. Her neighbors may grumble about the way she dominates them, but when it comes down to it they need her and cannot do without her. Neither can the reading public of America…” – Cynthia Reavell, The Tilling Society

About the Author: E. F. Benson

ISBN: 978-1-55921-277-9
240 pages
$11.95

Buy It Now:

Amazinlogobn_logopowellsbooks_logo

]]> http://www.beaufortbooks.com/2009/08/lucia-in-london/feed/ 0 Queen Lucia http://www.beaufortbooks.com/2009/08/queen-lucia/ http://www.beaufortbooks.com/2009/08/queen-lucia/#comments Sun, 23 Aug 2009 20:53:44 +0000 Beaufort Books http://www.beaufortbooks.com/?p=2055 Benson_Queen_frntcvr_mpThe first book in Benson’s famous series introduces us to Emmeline Lucas (Lucia) as she attempts to thwart the social climbing of a newly arrived Opera singer, Olga Braceley. Along with Lucia’s friends, enemies and husband, Phillip, we see Benson’s rich gift for carefully painting gossip, intrigue, backstabbing and the many other activities that occupy the residents of the rural village Riseholm.

Praise for Queen Lucia

“…Queen Lucia, the first in the series, follows Mrs. Lucas (Lucia to her most intimate friends) through a lengthy and often hilarious campaign to derail the career of a would-be rival to the throne of cultural arbiter. The plot, however, is less important than the pratfalls. The six Lucia novels form a kind of epic portrait of striving gone mod, and it’s good to have them appearing once again.” -Kirkus Reviews

About the Author: E. F. Benson

ISBN: 978-1-55921-252-6
250 pages
$1o.95

Buy It Now:

Amazinlogobn_logopowellsbooks_logo

]]> http://www.beaufortbooks.com/2009/08/queen-lucia/feed/ 0