"Scrumptious" is a word I've probably never used in my life, but it seems rather apt for this series. E.F. Benson's delectable light comedy is a cross between Austen and Wodehouse, somehow more savage than either and yet more fond of the characters at the same time.

Queen Lucia introduces us to the immortal Emmeline Lucas, renowned for her dinner parties in which she will play the First Movement of the Moonlight Sonata, but will then beg off playing the second and third movements on the grounds that they are more "morning and afternoon" (*cough* she can't quite play them yet *cough). Lucia dominates life, along with her effete best friend Georgie, in their idyllic town of Riseholme, while Lucia in London takes the characters on the road for some urban satire. Miss Mapp, originally a separate novel entirely, shows us the life of the doughty, determined Elizabeth Mapp in the quirky, rather insular town of Tilling. Finally, in Mapp and Lucia, the two women are brought together, two generals in the field, each determined to have complete control of their terrain. Benson would eventually carry on this story in Trouble for Lucia and Lucia's Progress.

This joyous series is light and sparkling, but remains a fantastic break from reality 100 years after the first book was published. The last three novels were famously adapted in the 1980s with Prunella Scales, Nigel Hawthorne, and a career-best Geraldine McEwan in the lead roles. This led to McEwan and Scales releasing the books on tape, which are a real gem if you can find them. (Like Wodehouse, Benson's novels lend themselves to being read aloud.) The books were adapted again for a far shorter miniseries in the 2010s which was well cast but a little over-zealous in my opinion.

Since the 1980s adaptation brought the books back into the culture, several novelists have tried their hand at sequels. Tom Holt's two volumes are well worth reading, but the more recent trilogy by Guy Fraser-Sampson were, to my mind, a complete failure, utterly at odds with Benson's approach.

I was so glad to find this six-volume Folio Society edition from the 1990s, with the original six novels in beautiful cloth-bound hardcover, and elegant illustrations.

A lifelong treat for lovers of this sort of humour. ( )

Six books in all. Loved reading these; such fun. Here's what I wrote after reading in 1988: "Life in small villages of Edwardian England - did people really live so? The memorable characters: Mrs. Emmeline Lucas Pillson (Lucia) - The Queen of Riseholm and then Tilling. Simply unbeatable. Georgia Pillson - The almost confirmed bachelor. A lover of embroidery and fashionable clothes. Elizabeth Mapp - Prior Queen of Tilling. Formidable and vicious. Quaint Irene - Eccentric and artistic. A downright lover of Lucia. Quite enjoyable and very often humorous. Recall the hoarding of food in Miss Mapp's garden room (Lucia's giardino segretto) closet and Diva's spilling the secret. Great fun." Wasn't the wallpaper you put up in the first house inspired by these books? ( )

Honestly I couldn't think of any better stay-at-home distraction reading than 900+ pages of Benson's delightful tales of small-stakes English country melodramatics. It did the trick perfectly. ( )

I love these stories. My only complaint is that the book is physically too heavy for light reading. ( )

Light weight and very much of their time, these novels follow the social adventures of upper-middle class residents of quiet country villages near London in the period between the wars. Lucia is pretentious and social climbing, but an interesting character study of a woman whose abilities would have taken her in quite different directions in another era. As Nancy Mitford remarks in her introduction, the oddly sexless Georgie Pillson and the rebellious woman painter, Irene, could not be creations of a modern writer. The rise and fall of fads among Lucia's social circle: spiritualism, Ouija boards, yoga, raw food diets, exercise programs and such, reminds us that human nature doesn't change that much, at least among those who have resources and time to devote to hobbies.