On Saturday February 29, members of the EF Benson Society commemorated the anniversary of the popular author’s death. Benson was born in 1867, the fifth child of Edward White Benson, who later became Archbishop of Canterbury. He spent many years in Rye, living at Lamb House and was thrice Mayor of the town in the 1930s.
The EF Benson Society was established in 1985 with the aim to pursue “the furtherance of the knowledge and appreciation of the Benson Family and in particular E F Benson, and to provide an opportunity for Benson enthusiasts to meet”.
The Society organises a full programme of events culminating in the “Rye Day” when Bensonites gather from across the country and beyond to enjoy a slap-up lunch and tea at Fletchers, a choice of walks and a fiendishly difficult quiz. This year, the Rye Day will take place on 11 July.
Benson is buried in the cemetery at the top of Rye Hill. The group gathered around the grave while Keith Cavers, Chair of the Society, read an obituary of EF Benson written by his friend Francis Yeats-Brown which was published in the Spectator.
This year is also the 100th anniversary of the publication of Benson’s first Mapp and Lucia book, “Queen Lucia” which is set in Riseholme, where Lucia lived before she moved to Tilling (Rye).
[Editor’s note: For the benefit of puzzled readers – as Benson died on February 29, 1940, the anniversary of his death only occurs every Leap Year when there is an extra day, February 29, and therefore this is only the 20th anniversary of his death, though he has been dead for 80 years]
Image Credits: John Case .
With Patrick MICEL, I am co-translator of the whole « Mapp & Lucia » cycle of novels recently re-published by French editor Payot !
Further translations in progress (« Paying Guests »…).
Was Lucia studying for her City & Guilds level 2 in cooking at Riseholme College in Lincolnshire – from whence the famous Lobster A la Riseholme came? Think she failed the exam, the recipe was spurned by Birds Eye at their nearby factory and she fled to lobster-less Tilling!