Miss Mapp by EF Benson

Second in the Lucia and Mapp series, Miss Mapp is another controlling character living in a small English village. She is more demonic than Lucia, nastier and more deliberately cruel, and you can’t like her as much. The story revolves around the town of Tilling (based on Rye where EF Benson lived) and involves a series of small town characters including Major Benjy, Captain Puffin, Mrs Plaistow and Diva, Miss Mapp’s arch enemy and outwardly, bosom friend. Life is all about who can get and disseminate the gossip first. Mapp and Diva spend a lot of their time trying to one-up one another and find ways to embarrass one another and make each other look foolish. This book describes a series of everyday events in the village, ranging from quarrels over new dresses to the arrival of Mr Wyse and Susan’ Plaistow’s attempts to entrap him. It’s all done across a backdrop of bridge and tea parties. This is laugh aloud stuff: Benson is witty and bitchy and obviously knows these types well . I’ll keep reading this series until they are all finished, the writing is so arch and so clever.