I can't find my E F Benson's. I MUST read them one more time!!!

Heavens Fatgran I thought those were my bookshelves for a moment! Would they be from a certain northern European mega chain of furnishing retailers?
I share your enthusiasm for Mapp and Lucia. Had to throw away my ancient paperbacks last year (falling apart, stained, yuck) but replaced them with new omnibus editions so that I can still re-read them!
I do hope you find your Bensons soon.

Mapp and Lucia are some of my favourite books as well.
I believe there are 2 television adaptations, I did watch one some years ago but the characters didn’t match up well to the images in my head.
It was enjoyable but liberties had been taken with some storylines and knowing the books so well I noticed everyone.
However Tilling was beautiful and I believe it may have been Rye, I shall google to check.
Fatgran your home looks so comfortable and welcoming, everyone would feel instantly at home.

Oh , among my favourite “comfort reads”
As is Barbara Pym - people had their own (little) crises then, although I am sure they were very real to them, but life was so much simpler.

You have inspired me to look out my copies. Lovely stories with a sharp yet gentle wit.
May I also recommend’The Diary of a Provincial Lady’ by E M Delafield. It got me through many difficult times, plus 3 labours and hours of night time feeds. A gently funny book.

I have Map and Lucinda on my Kindle ?. I know it isn’t the same but moving from a very large house , needs must

? Fatgran57 I have asked St Anthony for you.

Oh yes Barbara Pym, Dorothy Whipple, D E Stevenson, Elizabeth Taylor (not the actress!) Elizabeth Goudge and others of that ilk were my comfort reads you knew you were safe when you read one of those books.

Actually have some Barbara Pym on my library wish list at the moment.

annsixty thank you but very few people see the inside of my home, I am very reclusive !

Gaunt47 my husband made most of the bookshelves in that room all the ones running under the windows and the white built in ones also.

He was a builder once and has taught himself to make any number of things - he made this pair of chairs,(other pic won't load) bought a set of woodcarving tools, carved the legs and arms himself, not the upholstery but he has since learned to do that also! The only problem that he will never do the same thing again - once done he tires of that craft and finds something new to try.

Sorry Fatgran but i think you must have loaned them to me because i have just found them on my bookcase, i will read and return soon

grannypiper I hope you enjoy them and when you have finished I hope they will magically appear back on MY bookshelves

I recently re read all the Mapp and Lucias for the fiftieth time! I am currently re reading the Provincial Lady. When DD was little she loved the Geraldine McKewen and Prunella Scales TV series, which she called Mapp and Lucy

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202003/medium-239591-2020-03-29-20-16-41.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202003/medium-897257-2020-03-29-20-17-44.jpg

Update I have found some of them!! Only the paperback ones and one is missing, can't find my old hardcover volumes maybe I sold them on ebay

QuaintIrene St Anthony must have listened to you, with your username you must have felt my pain at misplacing my books

By the way have any of you read the Guy Fraser-Sampson Mapp and Lucia novels or the Tom Holt ones? I did read the latter and while quite good just weren't right somehow.

Anyway I also found my lovely John S Goodall books, my Anne of Green Gables series and my Little Women, Jo's Boys, Little Men etc so quite a good haul. Not that I will be reading all of them any time soon but at least I know where they are. Also a complete set of Daphne du Maurier haven't read her for years, may not enjoy them now.

These are all my favourite books and writers. I'm so happy to discover it's not just me!
Several people have tried to write more Mapp and Lucia books. Some are better than others but Guy Fraser Sampson's are about the best. I was desperate for a new fix so was glad to find them. Not perfect but still.
EM Delafield's other books are great reads too.

Fatgrn i sent the books back by 1st class Fairy mail, did you recieve them ?

grannypiper you must have been practising your speed reading skills! The fairies were super fast in getting them back to me, however one seems to be missing

Jane10 it's a shame that all these books will probably never be read by the younger generation. I guess all my books will end up on the tip when I am gone

The real horror is that when some young people do read it is "Fifty Shades of Grey" or similar monstrosities. They will never know the joy of reading lovely books.

I love Mapp and Lucia,but our copies are at our house in France but intend to load them onto my Kindle . I have also got the compendium copy of all the Provincial Lady's diaries.

Loved Barbara Pym about 40 years ago when I first read them. Tried to reread them again recently and they set my teeth on edge.

My confort author is Georgette Heyer, fantasy stories in a meticulously accurate historical setting.

Jame10, thank you. Shall try the Guy Fraser Sampson books.

Sorry, Jane, not Jame.

I loved the war time one and the one where they all go on holiday to a palatial hotel on the Italian lakes.

I have a copy of the Oxford Book of Humorous Prose, Frank Muir, which has some Mapp and Lucia stories. Very good.
I've never bought a lot of books as we used to have a very good library which was well stocked. If they didn't have a book you wanted they would get it from another library.
I have Pickwick Papers which always cheers me up. Must dig it out.

ps EF Benson was a strange character
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._F._Benson