Showing results by author "E.F. Benson" in All Categories

Barbara Jefford is the hilariously outrageous Lucia in this BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of the novel by E.F. Benson. Lucia is the uncrowned queen of 1920s provincial society, the Everest of social climbers and the most delicious of snobs. In the pastoral serenity of the village of Riseholme, Lucia and her unforgettable cronies face up to an Indian guru, spiritualism, and a cultural usurper.

Mapp and Lucia is the centrepiece of E.F. Benson's series of Lucia novels - bringing together for the first time the eponymous middle-aged doyennes of polite 1930s society Miss Elizabeth Mapp and Emmeline Luca (Lucia to her friends). Lucia, recently widowed, is the newcomer to the village of Tilling and eager to wrest the reins of social supremacy from the incumbant Miss Mapp and install herself as its benevolent dictator.

The Freaks of Mayfair by E.F. Benson is a series of satirical sketches introducing us to some bizarre inhabitants of Edwardian High Society of Mayfair, which was, and still is today, the stamping ground of the very wealthy. Each sketch introduces a different type of "freak". Sir Louis and Lady Mary Marigold turn snobbism into fine art; Sarah Whitehand is the social-climbing wife of an American toilet bowl magnate, and the so-called "Grizzly Kittens", Babs Begum and Charlie Gordon, cling desperately to their youth as they totter toward old age.

A wonderful collection of 50 of the best classic ghost stories ever written. 'The Missing Model' by Lettice Galbraith, 'Pomegranate Seed' by Edith Wharton, 'The Screaming Skull' by F. Marion Crawford, 'The Ghost in the Cupboard Room' by Wilkie Collins, 'The Shadow on the Blind' by Louisa Baldwin, 'A Ghost's Revenge' by Lettice Galbraith, 'The Lost Ghost' by Mary Wilkins-Freeman, 'On the Northern Ice' by Elia W. Peattie, 'The Cold Embrace' by Mary E. Braddon, 'The Dust Cloud' by E. F. Benson, and many more.

The Complete Mapp and Lucia Collection contains all of the novels in the Mapp & Lucia series from E.F. Benson. These beloved novels are classic comedies of manners set within an English village in the 1920s and 1930s.

E. F. Benson's (1867-1940) ghost and supernatural stories are marvellous jewels, that combine elegant writing with moments of blood-curdling horror. This collection comprises thirteen of his finest stories: The Man Who Went Too Far; The Horror Horn; The Other Bed; Gavon's Eve; The Room in the Tower; Ali Abdul's Grave; How Fear departed from the Long Gallery; The Shootings of Achnaleish; The Dust-Cloud; The Confession of Charles Linkworth; Caterpillars; At the Farmhouse; The Bus-Conductor.

Using her best social-climbing instincts and refusing to be embarrassed, Lucia sets out to conquer London and mingle with the beau monde. Soon a secret group of 'Luciaphiles' springs up; the social climbers who make up its rank never tire of watching her get into and out of all kinds of trouble.

A grisly spirit turns travelling companion for the unwitting passenger of a London bus; a repulsive neighbour returns from the grave, rejected by the very earth; an innocuous back garden becomes the stage for a nightmare encounter with druidic sacrifice. From deep in the British Library vaults emerges a new selection of E.F. Benson's most innovative, spine-tingling and satisfyingly dark 'spook stories'. Complete with an introduction exploring the fascinating story of Benson's life, and including the never-before-republished story 'Billy Comes Through'.

Emmeline Lucas, known to all as "Lucia", and her husband, Peppino, acquire a second home in fashionable Brompton Square in London from a deceased Aunt. When they move there for the season, Lucia's 'subjects' in Riseholme seethe with envy and outrage that she has deserted them for more illustrious circles, where her snobbism and blatant ambition reach new heights.

England between the wars was a paradise of calm and leisure for the very, very rich. Into this enclave is born Mrs. Emmeline Lucas—La Lucia, as she is known—a woman determined to lead a life quite different from the subdued formality of her class.

This collection contains the best of classic horror writing, with the atmospheric genius of Edgar Allan Poe, the invention and eeriness of Bram Stoker, and the suspense of Wilkie Collins amongst the terrifying gems. In this veritable schooling in the origins of modern-day horror and fantasy, some of the best minds in the history of English literature take on the world of vampires, werewolves, and the supernatural.

Here are some truly spooky stories, given a spine-tingling read by Richard Pasco. The stories include "The Mark of the Beast" by Rudyard Kipling, "Aurelia" by E.T.A. Hoffmann, "Ligeia" by Edgar Allan Poe, "Mrs. Amworth" by E.F. Benson, and "Dracula's Guest" by Bram Stoker.

Darkness falls. The undead rise to feast on the succulent blood of the living. For years vampires have fascinated great writers of the occult such as De Maupassant, Count Stenbock, E Nesbit and EF Benson. This is The Story Circle's collection of some of their spine-chilling tales told by award-winning actors.

A third collection of 18 classic tales of the weird and supernatural by some of the best known writers in these genres.

The narrative follows the stylishly controversial Dodo, a young woman from the British upper-middle-class. She is very confident she is about to make a most advantageous match which should position her perfectly for the social status and money she so deeply craves. This makes for a work replete with sardonic and romantic and paranormal melodrama. In an atmosphere so full of extreme snobbery that it is a riot of hilarity.

An arch-schemer, gossip, and insatiably curious social climber, Miss Elizabeth Mapp is a 40-something spinster living in the picturesque English seaside town of Tilling. Miss Mapp and her nemesis, Godiva Plaistow vie for sartorial and social status much to the amusement of the gentlemen of Tilling - particularly Major Flint and his friend Captain Puffin.

While staying at a friend’s house in an apparently humdrum London suburb, the sceptical Hugh Grainger sees and then converses with an unsettling stranger from his bedroom window in the very dead of night. But what could be the meaning of this curious visitation? ‘Hold very tight, please!’ E. F. Benson is well known for his Mapp and Lucia novels but his ghost and supernatural stories are marvellous jewels, combining elegant writing and moments of blood-curdling horror. Here Greg Wagland narrates one of the best of them, for Magpie Audio.

A recurrent dream you have goes on for years and years. Well, actually, it’s not a dream, it is, most assuredly a nightmare. Every night in sleep, you encounter the same people, you hold the same conversations, you witness the same disturbing sights and invariably you wake up in a muck sweat, screaming, believing yourself to be in the room in the tower. But it’s just a nightmare, nothing to it, nothing remotely tangible, until… This is the premise of E. F. Benson’s celebrated ghost story, ‘

1. "August Heat" by W. F. Harvey 2. "A Madman’s Manuscript" by Charles Dickens 3. "The Hair" by A. J. Alan 4. "My Favourite Murder" by Ambrose Bierce 5. "Cannibalism in the Cars" by Mark Twain 6. "Gabriel-Earnest" by Saki 7. "The Pistol Shot" by Alexander Pushkin 8. "The Mark of the Beast" by Rudyard Kipling 9. "At the Farmhouse" by E. F. Benson 10. "The Parasite" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 11. "The Murder of the Mandarin" by Arnold Bennett 12. "Moon’s Gibbet" by Egerton Castle 13. "Query" by Seamark

Taking a winter holiday in a splendid resort in the Swiss Alps our hero finds himself billeted in a surprisingly large room, furnished with two beds. He checks with the man at the bureau, but there’s no mistake: it’s all his, a veritable snip at 12 francs a night! What a stroke of luck! And what could possibly connect this alpine idyll with Boston, Massachusetts? E. F. Benson is well known for his Mapp and Lucia novels but his ghost and supernatural stories are marvellous jewels, combining elegant writing and moments of blood-curdling horror.