Tom Holt

Tom Holt wrote two E.F.Benson books, Lucia in Wartime and Lucia Triumphant. sadly both are now out of print and command high prices second hand, although there is a rumour that they may be reissued by an American publisher.

I've read both of these, and absolutely loved them. I think I found them for more or less reasonable prices on Abebooks.

I've read these two as well: got them in trades and as gifts from other Benson fans. I don't currently have them with me (they got left behind when I moved: *sadness*) - but if you like the "real" Lucia books, you'll like these also. They are as close as you can get to Benson without being the real thing!

I have both of these books (hardcovers brought in the 1980s) and in fact the were the first of the Tilling books I read. I then made a point of buying any E.F. Benson books I came across while spending many hours idling through bookshops. Tom Holt has so perfectly captured E.F. Benson's writing style.

I see that someone has conveniently made the two Tom Holt books numbers seven and eight in the Mapp and Lucia series. The series is at http://www.librarything.com/series/Mapp%20and%20Lucia

I consider the transition between Benson's series and Holt's two additions to be seamless: I get almost as much enjoyment out of them as I get from the originals, and include them in my yearly summer rereading of the whole tea table epic. His use of the Monopoly craze is perfectly in tune with other crazes of the series and Mapp's aspiration for family greatness is set up in exactly the way Benson would have done. Holt was brave to take Lucia and Mapp into the war period, but very wise to end the series during the phony war. It's a little hard to imagine Tilling once the bombs start dropping--by then we are well into the world of Foyle's War.

addendum to above message: my paperback copies of the Holt books are scandalously bound--they have fallen to pieces and have to be held together with elastic: reading them is like turning over the loose leaves of a medieval manuscript in some monastery library. A properly produced reprint is needed. The prices of these titles on the used book market are astonishing.