‘The hours of the morning between breakfast and lunch were the time which the inhabitants of Riseholme chiefly devoted to spying on each other.’Part of a six-instalment comic book series, Mapp and Lucia, which recounts the eccentric tales of various women in the 1920s and their fight for social status, Queen Lucia introduces the iconic Emmeline Lucas. It is the first book in Benson’s hugely successful series.

The queen bee of the fictional village of Riseholme, Mrs. Emmeline ‘Lucia’ Lucas is a snobbish yet oddly charming woman who prides herself on being the cultural and intellectual leader of her community. She dabbles in art, plants Shakespeare-themed flower arrangements in her garden and uses fake Italian phrases to maintain her social standing. Trouble brews when some new arrivals to town – including the glamorous opera singer Olga Bracely and the eccentric spiritualist Daisy Quantock – begin to challenge Lucia’s hold over Riseholme. A hilarious satire of small-town rivalries, full of pretensions and absurd social situations, Queen Lucia sets the tone for this brilliantly witty series. This audiobook edition is brought to life by the fabulous Lucy Scott.

E.F. Benson (1867 – 1940) was an English novelist, historian and short story writer. A precocious writer, he published his first book while he was at university. He is best known for the successful novel, Dodo (1893), and his collection of satirical and evocative ghost stories.