Lucia Triumphant

Lucia Triumphant is the one where Lucia and Georgie decide to corral the other Tillinghites into knitting a vast tapestry of Tilling history, told in one hundred panels designed by artistic and clever Georgie. At first the villagers are all excited by it, but by the time they get around to working on the second panel, "a battle scene of great complexity, illustrating a rather obscure tale from the pages of Geoffrey of Monmouth," they are in open rebellion against Mayor Lucia's autocratic ways, for she is a demon when she gets going. The other part of the book is about Mapp pretending she knows more about motorcars than she does, and trying to practice her driving in secret. It's great fun, but perhaps one of the lesser books in the Lucia saga, since both tapestry and motorcar story die out before long, and get replaced by other ludicrous schemes that aren't, however, even as amusing as the first. Benson also constructed his novels in this modular manner, but he had the sense to save the best stories for the end, otherwise the reader's attention starts to flag. And the pretending to know how to drive, is a little bit too much like pretending to know Italian for my taste. One thinks of the original with a pang of loss. Well, now I'm off to order a copy of the "new" Lucia book MAJOR BENJY, Wish me luck, and äs always, -- "au reservoir."

Despite some others' mild complaints about Tom Holt's books, I find them refreshing - especially as I did not want to see Mapp & Lucia end (the original Benson series). This story is an easy read and quite funny. It is so comical to see life along the English coast with some of the most incredible characters vying for top position and to see who can out-do one another with the most sophistication. One of my favourite books to really have a good laugh at! I wish I was independantly wealthy enough to spend my days at the market, doing watercolours, gardening, and playing the piano! Ah, the good life! :)

Those of us who are Lucia fans (of the origianl E.F. Benson six books) can never get enough of her upper middle class, early 20th century English scheming. The original novels are some of the funniest ever written--perhaps more-so because we cannot help but see a little bit of ourselves and our friends through our laughter.Holt's Lucia Triumphant is not a send up, but one of two lovingly crafted continuations of the series. In the originals nothing ever happens of much import except in that it sets up comedic bits that one can read and read over again a laugh everytime. In Holt's novels, the situations are just a little more ridiculous, and the characters drawn with just a little more characature. That is my only complaint, this is not quite up to E.F. Benson's writing in the--one might say--subtlety of the broadness. Otherwise, this is a fine comedic novel, indeed. If you are a Luciafile, or you like Evelyn Waugh and that ilk, you will enjoy this book immensely.It is an enjoyable homage to Benson's characters well worth your time.