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E. F. Benson
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Trouble For Lucia (Lucia Series) Paperback – January 1, 2001

by E. F. Benson (Author), Micheàl MacLiammóir (Foreword)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 83 ratings
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In Trouble for Lucia, Lucia learns to ride a bicycle, and we live through the saga of Blue Birdie (Mrs. Wyse's dead budgerigar [parakeet] invoke 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.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    231 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Moyer Bell and its subsidiaries
  4. Publication date
    January 1, 2001
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1559212985
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1559212984
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"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 (1867-1940) was a prolific novelist, dramatist, short story writer, and biographer. He wrote biographies of Sir Francis Drake, Alcibiades, Ferdinand Magellan, Queen Victoria, and Charlotte Bronte. The son of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and a bit eccentric, he studied archaeology at Kings College, Cambridge, and served as Mayor of Rye near the end of his life.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Moyer Bell and its subsidiaries; First Edition (January 1, 2001)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 231 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1559212985
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1559212984
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 83 ratings

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E. F. Benson

E. F. Benson

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
83 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Spencer Reppe
5.0 out of 5 stars Begging for More
Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2014
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Just finished this sixth book in the Mapp & Lucia series, and laughed all the way through all six. The competition between Mapp and Lucia is always front and center. No one is more pedantic and pretentious than Lucia. She is intent on making Tilling a center of intellectual and artistic activity. Lucia advocates for social reforms that benefit the poor—clear the slums and pasteurize the milk. The general population gets film censorship and benches in sunny locations. And she is willing to raise taxes by "leaps and bounds". Adversary Elizabeth Mapp has been appointed "Mayoress" by Lucia with the philosophy of "keep your friends close, and your enemies closer". Someone kills their budgie bird when they accidentally sit on it, a dog chews and eats Major Flint's riding crop, "quaint" Irene becomes more prominent, Lucia learns to ride a bike, and the Duchess of Sheffield dominates the lives of Mapp and Lucia. Life in Tilling becomes exciting when all these events are rippling through their lives at the same time. The book ends with me wanting more, but I know that is impossible. However, BBC is filming a new Mapp and Lucia series to be shown in the fall of 2014. I hope to see it in the US soon thereafter.
I say farewell to Riseholme and Tilling as I fear their days are numbered. There are no children in either community, and only one woman of child-bearing age, and there are no eligible bachelors.
One person found this helpful
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Clark B Nelson
5.0 out of 5 stars A fun read. What's amazing is how quickly you get ...
Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2014
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A fun read. What's amazing is how quickly you get drawn into this small circle of people who don't do very much of anything remarkable. It's like a 1920's version of "Seinfeld"
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Notary Sojac
4.0 out of 5 stars A delightful conclusion to the Lucia series.
Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2009
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If the final entry in the Lucia series doesn't quite live up to the earlier novels, no matter. It will still give a great deal of pleasure to Anglophiles and lovers of social satire and understated humor that respects the intelligence of the reader. Lucia is like Becky Sharp, but without the claws.
2 people found this helpful
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A. Woodley
5.0 out of 5 stars Bravo! Bellisimo!
Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2002
E. F. Benson has created one of the wonders of literature - two characters which you almost cannot like, up against one another - and the outcome makes absolutely wonderful and witty reading. This is the final instalment of the Risenholme/Tilling series. It was published first in 1939 and Benson died a year later.
Definitely trouble for Lucia, - trouble in the form of Miss Mapp-Flint predominantly - but also Lucia's overweening ego. Having moved from Riseholme to Miss Mapp's stomping ground of Tilling, Lucia has a rival she must really battle. Daisy Quantock of Risenholme is nothing to Miss Mapp (now of course Mrs Mapp-Flint). Of course Lucia moved to Tilling some time before, bringing Georgie with her - we saw her progress in the two previous novels - however the joke never seems to fade.
Lucia is still practising her false Italian, and her pseudo artistic pursuits - however this time she is mayor of Tilling. All venom is sugar coated and presented with perfectly in place smiles, and it all takes place in the tiny confines of Tilling. Although the deserving poor are mentioned it seems the whole village of Tilling revolves around a small cast of wonderfully drawn characters - Lucia and her now husband Georgie, Colonel and Mrs Mapp-Flint, Mr and Mrs Wyse, the Vicar and his mousie wife, Diva and 'quaint Irene'. No other characters really have anything to say - they might pass in and out of the action such as Foljambe (Georgies indispensible maid) and various town councillors - but they are never crowded into the scene.
The crises tend to be small - but the village is small so they become larger than life and the repercussions are hilarious - There is bridge to be played - and when Lucia decides that, as mayor she must set an example and not gamble for money she finds there are few supporters. Lucia must wangle her way out of a party which includes Italian speakers, and wangle her way _into_ an invitation to stay the night with a Duchess. There is the terrible irony of the unflattering portrait of Mrs Mapp-Flint which goes on to win picture of the year in London to be dealt with - and then there is the mystery (for the village anyway) of Colonel Mapp-Flint's missing crop - the one which he hit the tiger with across the nose before shooting it. Most marvellously there is the resolution of the unfortunate death of Blue Birdie, Susan Wyse's much beloved Budgerigaar. And while much of this might sound familiar from other Lucia novels, they are as freshly drawn as ever.
E F Benson doesn't bother with suspense for his readers - we always know where the riding crop is - or who Lucia will select as her mayoress - the joy of these novels is finding out _how_ this will happen. Things which begin in a chapter early on, might not reach their conclusion until near the end of the book.
It is such a pity the Lucia's ended here -there seems so much room to continue the shenanigans in Tilling, especially with all the promise of the war years. If you haven't read a Lucia before - start at the beginning with Queen Lucia and work your way through them. They only really make proper sense in order as there are characters and activities which cast right back to the first novel which won't really be amusing unless you have read them in order.
20 people found this helpful
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Indiana O.
3.0 out of 5 stars Nothing new
Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2014
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If you have read one of the series, you have read them all. It's well written and humorous, but incredibly shallow.
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John Austin
5.0 out of 5 stars Mapp and Lucia as mayoress and mayor.
Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2002
Having worn mayoral robes himself, it is not surprising that writer E F Benson should have allowed readers of his Lucia novels to see how that scheming, contriving, arch social climbing lady would do the same when elected as the first lady mayor of the quaint village of Tilling. As the book’s title suggests, donning the mayoral robes brings trouble for Lucia. She foresees that most of it is likely to derive from her arch rival for supremacy in local affairs, Miss Mapp. Accordingly she decides to make Elizabeth Mapp her mayoress. “It is far better to have her on a lead, bound to me by ties of gratitude that skulking about like a pariah dog, snapping at me,” she tells her husband, Georgie Pillson.
Of course the dog lead soon becomes more like the rope in a tug of war as the two rivals strive to topple each other. Reading an account of the tension, in this the last of the Mapp and Lucia books, provides you with some of the best humour in English literature of the 1930s.
12 people found this helpful
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Diana
3.0 out of 5 stars lucia in trouble
Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2016
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The cassettes were in good order but the casing was falling to pieces.
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Top reviews from other countries

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J Thickett
5.0 out of 5 stars Read one and you'll want the rest of his books.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 4, 2016
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Quick delivery. I picked up the book Mapp and Lucia in a lovely book shop/tea shop in Brecon. I'd seen the TV series with Miranda Richardson and Anna Chancellor but hadn't realised that there was a series of books to enjoy. I'd never come across author E.F. Benson before but have now bought the rest of the Lucia books and several more besides. Trouble for Lucia is the last in the series so I've not read it yet but based on reading Queen Lucia and, of course, my original purchase I have several more weeks of enjoying his wonderful, funny characters.
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louga de montelimar
5.0 out of 5 stars Dire que c'est fini...
Reviewed in France on July 17, 2014
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Et voilà, j'ai fini le sixième tome, je n'aurais plus de nouvelles de Georgie, ne connaîtrais plus les basses manoeuvres de Miss Mapp, les contre-attaques et sublimes intrigues de Lucia.
Et je sens que ça va me manquer.
Ceux qui en sont aux sixième tome me comprennent sans doute, ceux qui s'interrogeraient sur ce curieux phénomène ( judicieusement analysé dans la préface de Nancy Mitford) qui conduit des lecteurs sains d'esprits et peu enclins au commérage à se passionner pour la vie sociale et mondaine de petits bourgeois anglais du début du XXieme siècle, peuvent commencer par Queen Lucia en persévérant un peu au début, l'attachement aux personnages (malgré leurs faiblesses et leur caractère artificiel) étant l'une des clefs du succès de cette oeuvre.
One person found this helpful
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Copeland
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 20, 2016
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Up to standard. How very observant of people's foibles E.F. Benson was.
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Frank Adey
4.0 out of 5 stars Lucia is unbeatable
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 12, 2017
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A charming, very funny novel from the Thirties.
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John B
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 18, 2015
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a good read
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