Reflections on Rye

Prodigal Wife found this beautiful photo of Rye at PublicDomainePictures.net, and it made me grin like a happy giraffe! At the end of the street is Lamb House, once the home of E.F. Benson (and Henry James before him)—better known as Mallards to millions of Mapp and Lucia fans like myself. Looking up at the conservatory, I so easily imagine Lucia spying on her neighbors from her music room. And one of the lovely cottages on the right must be George's home, before he became Lucia's husband (in name only, of course). Perhaps the one with the charming pink roses?

Only in England...

Shelley, the wry churchwarden of St. Mary's , is pretty sure that only in Rye would a sitting mayor have been allowed to put his little dog into a church's stained glass window--front and center, no less! Of course, we're talking about E.F. Benson, author of Prodigal favorite, Mapp and Lucia, who, when he was mayor of Rye, had his black dog Taffy immortalized in the newly redesigned West Window. The chap in red in the bottom right corner represents the author in his mayoral robes, perhaps begging forgiveness for his irreverence.

A new Mapp and Lucia book!

I have just discovered that a new Mapp and Lucia book was recently released. No, no, obviously not by the illustrious (and deceased) E.F. Benson, but by English author Guy Fraser-Sampson, who has channeled the outrageous Major Benjy for a series of new adventures as twisty as the streets of Rye. Captain Puffin can't be far behind—fingers crossed!
Now, I haven't read it yet (I've left Prodigal Wife a hint regarding my upcoming birthday), but this sounds like a worthy addition to a great canon of comic literature. I believe the story unfolds while Miss Mapp holds reign in Tilling.
For any Luciaphiles out there, Major Benjy is available at Amazon and Amazon UK.
Qui-hi!

Hunting for Mallards'

A notable writer who set his novels in Rye was E.F. Benson. He lived just at the top of Mermaid Street, in Lamb House, renamed Mallards in his Mapp and Lucia novels. Here, Queen Lucia held reign. The streets and settings were all unchanged by time, just as Benson described them. I counted houses to where Georgie Pillson would have lived before he became – in name only – Lucia’s husband. I picked out the places where my favorite characters had done their marketing. The street corners where they sniped and spied and gently but cruelly admonished one another, scoring points where they could, forming alliances and fighting social battles much to the delight of generations of fans.