Customer Reviews

Lucia in Wartime

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Tom Holt has moved Lucia to the days of Winston Churchill and WWII. He wrote this sequel to the Lucia novels after E.F. Benson passed on, and I must say, he did an admirable job of catching the dialog exactly. You'd swear that Benson wrote this book.

The plot is predictably Lucia, who seeks to gain local social prominence, this time amongst the officers who are heading off to war. Their staff of servants (cook especially) are off doing important wartime work and Lucia and Georgie must fend for themselves. Georgie turns out to have a flair for the kitchen, even with wartime rationing and a surfeit of parsnips. He escapes from Lucia's domininance to shine on his own. Which leads to the triumphant end of the book, and a dinner for a certain cigar chomping notable.

Sad this is out of print, so seek one out. If you are a Lucia addict, this book will add to your enjoyment.

Holt is ingenious in his attempts to cast himself back into the twisted mind of EF Benson. Throughout the book he nearly achieves the impossible, for alas no modern author could really be as perfect as Benson. Nevertheless this book (and TRIUMPHANT) are worthy successors to the original six and are not bad in their own right, though perhaps giving Georgie Pillson such prominence wasn't the best idea he had. LUCIA IN WARTIME might well have been called GEORGIE IN WARTIME for our little hero, one of the most effeminate husbands in all literature, here achieves mass popularity nearly on the scale of his opera singing idol Olga Bracely, by becoming a cook. His radio broadcasts sweep the nation and cheer up a populace devastated by German bombing and grimly stuck with a harshly limited menu, for Georgie has somehow learned to disguise everything as something else so that you too can serve Lobster a la Riseholme (Benson's immortal invention) at a dinner party for eight even if you have only a cup of rolled oats and perhaps a carrot.

Lucia is thereby thrust somewhat in the shadow of things, and even her arch rival Elizabeth Mapp-Flynt attains a momentary upper hand when she intercepts Lucia's invitation from Windsor Castle and goes in Lucia's place, claiming that Lucia will be unable to attend. Maybe TRIUMPHANT is a bit better that WARTIME, for TRIUMPHANT has the hilarious mystery of Mapp's lineage to make a throughline in it, whereas WARTIME just goes amiably along from one "almost working" plot to another. Nevertheless all the old gang are here, nearly recognizable--quaint Irene, Diva Plaistow, the Wyses, Benjy and Foljambe. Long live Lucia!

Most authors who write a continuation of another author's beloved series of novels fail miserably. This cannot be said of author Tom Holt who rose magnificently to the challenge. You would be hard pressed to realize that Benson did not write this.

We have Mapp and Lucia during WWII staging their own mini war over who is doing more for the war effort. As one might expect, it is their husbands who are making a contribution yet they strive mightily to get the most credit for doing almost nothing! Lucia's husband Georgie becomes a star during the war effort as a chef. True, Lucia was the one who talked him into becoming one. However, she did so because her chef quit to move further inland so as to avoid a German invasion. It was either get Georgie to cook or do it herself, especially for her dinner parties for officers.

As for Mapp, her husband is in charge of the Home Guard for Tilling (in case of a German invasion). He certainly takes his job seriously enough and he and his men patrol constantly. Mapp, by contrast, chairs the local Red Cross, which means that she parades around in the uniform but NEVER has to work on an actual patient. So of course it is the two women who want to be heaped with honors for their war efforts and they plot and wage fierce battle to achieve this. Mapp even goes so far as to steal Lucia's invitation to meet the king and queen for her war work. All of the usual characters are present in Tilling.

There is an excellent audiobook version of this as well with Nora West doing the narration.

Having read all of the original Benson books and the sequels by Tom Holt, I think I am something of a Lucia-expert. Therefore, I can certainly feel the difference in style between the Benson books and this wonderful Holt pastiche, but I still love it. England is at war, as are Mapp and Lucia. The battle in Tilling goes to the one who gathers the most officers for their parties. Naturally, Queen Lucia leads the fray, but Elizabeth has an ace up her sleeve in the form of a distant cousin who serves in the military. The campaign against Germany has nothing on the intrigues of those nemesi of Tilling. Holt does an admirable job of breathing life into these characters, and his obviously knowledge about and affection for the original saga makes this novel a joy.

Though published before Holt's other highly satisfying sequel to Benson's sextet, "Lucia in Wartime" reads perfectly as the concluding volume. Best to read "Lucia Triumphant" right after the last Benson (or maybe a few weeks later, so the very slight shift in voice and rhythm isn't so apparent), and then this last. The final paragraph is just how that dazzling chronicle of entre-deux-guerres small-town England should end.