Edward Frederic Benson
Encyclopedia
Edward Frederic Benson was an English
novelist, biographer, memoirist and short story
writer
, known professionally as E.F. Benson. His friends called him Fred.
(later Chancellor
of Lincoln Cathedral
, Bishop of Truro
and Archbishop of Canterbury
), and Mary Sidgwick Benson
("Minnie").
Benson was educated at Marlborough College
where he wrote some of his earliest works, and upon which he based his novel David Blaize
. He was the younger brother of Arthur Christopher Benson
, who wrote the words to "Land of Hope and Glory
", Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson
, author of several novels and Roman Catholic apologetic works, and Margaret Benson
(Maggie) an amateur Egyptologist. Two other siblings died young. Benson's parents had six children and no grand-children. E. F. Benson never married, and is likely to have been homosexual. Certainly this reveals itself through the camp
humour of his novels, the implicit homoeroticism
of his university works such as David Blaize (1916), his love of the company of handsome men, and his close friendships with known homosexuals such as John Ellingham Brooks with whom he shared a villa in Capri
. Prior to the First World War the island was extremely popular with wealthy gay men.
E. F. Benson was an excellent athlete, and represented England at figure skating
. He was a precocious and prolific writer, publishing his first book while still a student. Nowadays he is principally known for his Mapp and Lucia
series about Emmeline "Lucia" Lucas and Elizabeth Mapp.
The principal setting of four of the Mapp and Lucia books is a town called Tilling
, which is recognizably based on Rye, East Sussex
, where Benson lived for many years and served as mayor
from 1934 (he moved there in 1918). Benson's home, Lamb House
, served as the model for Mallards, Lucia's home in some of the Tilling series. There really was a handsome 'Garden Room' adjoining the street but, unfortunately, it was destroyed by a bomb in the Second World War. Lamb House attracted writers: it was earlier the home of Henry James
, and later of Rumer Godden
.
In London, Benson also lived at 395 Oxford Street
, W1
(now the branch of Russell & Bromley
just west of Bond Street Underground Station
), 102 Oakley Street, SW3
, and 25 Brompton Square, SW3
, where much of the action of Lucia in London takes place and where English Heritage
placed a Blue Plaque
in 1994.
Benson died in 1940 of throat cancer
in University College Hospital
, London
.
and romantic melodrama. He repeated the success of Dodo, which featured a portrait of composer and militant suffragette Ethel Smyth
(which she "gleefully acknowledged", according to actress Prunella Scales
), with the same cast of characters a generation later: Dodo the Second (1914), "a unique chronicle of the pre-1914 Bright Young Things
" and Dodo Wonders (1921), "a first-hand social history
of the Great War in Mayfair
and the Shires
". The Mapp and Lucia series, written relatively late in his career, consists of six novels and two short stories. The novels are: Queen Lucia, Lucia in London, Miss Mapp (including the short story The Male Impersonator), Mapp and Lucia, Lucia's Progress (published as The Worshipful Lucia in the U.S.
) and Trouble for Lucia. The short stories are "The Male Impersonator" and "Desirable Residences". Both appear in anthologies of Benson's short stories, and the former is also often appended to the end of the novel Miss Mapp.
The last three novels were serialized by London Weekend Television
for the fledgling Channel 4
in 1985–6 under the series title Mapp and Lucia and starring Prunella Scales
, Geraldine McEwan
and Nigel Hawthorne
; the first four have been adapted for BBC Radio 4
by both Aubrey Woods
and (most recently) Ned Sherrin
; the fifth, Lucia's Progress, was adapted for BBC Radio 4
in 2008 by John Peacock. During 2007, the television series was rerun on the British digital channel ITV3
.
Benson was also known as a writer of ghost stories
, which frequently appear in collections. His 1906 short story, "The Bus-Conductor," a fatal-crash premonition tale about a person haunted by a hearse driver, has been adapted several times, notably in 1944 (in the film Dead of Night
and as an anecdote in Bennett Cerf
's Ghost Stories anthology published the same year) and in a 1961 episode of The Twilight Zone
. The catchphrase from the story, which even spawned an urban legend
, "Room for one more," also appears in in the 1986 Oingo Boingo
song, "Dead Man's Party
."
Benson is also known for a series of biographies/autobiographies and memoirs, including one of Charlotte Brontë
. His last book, delivered to his publisher ten days before his death, was an autobiography entitled Final Edition.
H. P. Lovecraft
spoke highly of Benson's works in his "Supernatural Horror in Literature," most notably of his story "The Man Who Went Too Far."
A critical essay on Benson's ghost stories appears in S. T. Joshi
's book The Evolution of the Weird Tale (2004).
Further "Mapp and Lucia" books have been written by Tom Holt
and Guy Fraser-Sampson.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
novelist, biographer, memoirist and short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, known professionally as E.F. Benson. His friends called him Fred.
Life
E.F. Benson was born at Wellington College in Berkshire, the fifth child of the headmaster, Edward White BensonEdward White Benson
Edward White Benson was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1883 until his death.-Life:Edward White Benson was born in Highgate, Birmingham, the son of a Birmingham chemical manufacturer. He was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA in 1852...
(later Chancellor
Chancellor
Chancellor is the title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the Cancellarii of Roman courts of justice—ushers who sat at the cancelli or lattice work screens of a basilica or law court, which separated the judge and counsel from the...
of Lincoln Cathedral
Lincoln Cathedral
Lincoln Cathedral is a historic Anglican cathedral in Lincoln in England and seat of the Bishop of Lincoln in the Church of England. It was reputedly the tallest building in the world for 249 years . The central spire collapsed in 1549 and was not rebuilt...
, Bishop of Truro
Bishop of Truro
The Bishop of Truro is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Truro in the Province of Canterbury.The present diocese covers the county of Cornwall and it is one of the most recently created dioceses of the Church of England...
and Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
), and Mary Sidgwick Benson
Mary Sidgwick Benson
Mary Sidgwick Benson was a Victorian hostess, notable as the wife of Edward Benson, who later became archbishop of Canterbury, and for her later relationship with Lucy Tait, daughter of the previous Archbishop of Canterbury, Archibald Campbell Tait...
("Minnie").
Benson was educated at Marlborough College
Marlborough College
Marlborough College is a British co-educational independent school for day and boarding pupils, located in Marlborough, Wiltshire.Founded in 1843 for the education of the sons of Church of England clergy, the school now accepts both boys and girls of all beliefs. Currently there are just over 800...
where he wrote some of his earliest works, and upon which he based his novel David Blaize
David Blaize
David Blaize is the title of a book by Edward Frederic Benson. The first edition was published in 1916. It was published by Hodder and Stoughton, London....
. He was the younger brother of Arthur Christopher Benson
A. C. Benson
Arthur Christopher Benson was an English essayist, poet, and author and the 28th Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge....
, who wrote the words to "Land of Hope and Glory
Land of Hope and Glory
"Land of Hope and Glory" is a British patriotic song, with music by Edward Elgar and lyrics by A. C. Benson, written in 1902.- Composition :...
", Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson
Robert Hugh Benson
Robert Hugh Benson was the youngest son of Edward White Benson and his wife, Mary...
, author of several novels and Roman Catholic apologetic works, and Margaret Benson
Margaret Benson
Margaret Benson was an English author and amateur Egyptologist and one of the six children of Edward White Benson, an Anglican clergyman , and his wife Mary Sidgwick Benson, the sister of philosopher Henry Sidgwick...
(Maggie) an amateur Egyptologist. Two other siblings died young. Benson's parents had six children and no grand-children. E. F. Benson never married, and is likely to have been homosexual. Certainly this reveals itself through the camp
Camp
-Outdoor accommodation and recreation:* Campsite or campground, a recreational outdoor sleeping and eating site* Summer camp, typically organized for groups of children or youth* A term used in New England, Northern Ontario and New Brunswick to describe a cottage...
humour of his novels, the implicit homoeroticism
Homoeroticism
Homoeroticism refers to the erotic attraction between members of the same sex, either male–male or female–female , most especially as it is depicted or manifested in the visual arts and literature. It can also be found in performative forms; from theatre to the theatricality of uniformed movements...
of his university works such as David Blaize (1916), his love of the company of handsome men, and his close friendships with known homosexuals such as John Ellingham Brooks with whom he shared a villa in Capri
Capri
Capri is an Italian island in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrentine Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples, in the Campania region of Southern Italy...
. Prior to the First World War the island was extremely popular with wealthy gay men.
E. F. Benson was an excellent athlete, and represented England at figure skating
Figure skating
Figure skating is an Olympic sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform spins, jumps, footwork and other intricate and challenging moves on ice skates. Figure skaters compete at various levels from beginner up to the Olympic level , and at local, national, and international competitions...
. He was a precocious and prolific writer, publishing his first book while still a student. Nowadays he is principally known for his Mapp and Lucia
Mapp and Lucia
Mapp and Lucia is a collective name for a series of novels by E. F. Benson, and is also the name of a television series based on those novels.-The novels:...
series about Emmeline "Lucia" Lucas and Elizabeth Mapp.
Tilling (Sussex)
Tilling is a fictional coastal town, based on Rye, East Sussex, in the Mapp and Lucia novels of Edward Frederic Benson .- Town in the novels of E F Benson :...
, which is recognizably based on Rye, East Sussex
Rye, East Sussex
Rye is a small town in East Sussex, England, which stands approximately two miles from the open sea and is at the confluence of three rivers: the Rother, the Tillingham and the Brede...
, where Benson lived for many years and served as mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
from 1934 (he moved there in 1918). Benson's home, Lamb House
Lamb House
Lamb House is an 18th-century house situated in Rye, East Sussex, England, and in the ownership of the National Trust.The house has literary connections. It was the home of Henry James from 1898 to 1916, and later of E.F. Benson and Rumer Godden. Benson writes lovingly of both garden and house,...
, served as the model for Mallards, Lucia's home in some of the Tilling series. There really was a handsome 'Garden Room' adjoining the street but, unfortunately, it was destroyed by a bomb in the Second World War. Lamb House attracted writers: it was earlier the home of Henry James
Henry James
Henry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....
, and later of Rumer Godden
Rumer Godden
Margaret Rumer Godden OBE was an English author of over 60 fiction and nonfiction books written under the name of Rumer Godden. A few of her works were co-written by her sister, Jon Godden, who wrote several novels on her own...
.
In London, Benson also lived at 395 Oxford Street
Oxford Street
Oxford Street is a major thoroughfare in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, United Kingdom. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, as well as its most dense, and currently has approximately 300 shops. The street was formerly part of the London-Oxford road which began at Newgate,...
, W1
London postal district
The London postal district is the area in England, currently of , to which mail addressed to the LONDON post town is delivered. The area was initially devised in 1856 and throughout its history has been subject to periodic reorganisation, contraction and division into increasingly smaller postal...
(now the branch of Russell & Bromley
Russell & Bromley
Russell & Bromley is a British shoe retailer with a high-street retail operation. The business headquarters is based on Farwig Lane in Bromley, Kent, England...
just west of Bond Street Underground Station
Bond Street tube station
Bond Street tube station is a London Underground station on Oxford Street, near the junction with New Bond Street. Note that the street-level entrances are approximately 200 metres west of New Bond Street itself...
), 102 Oakley Street, SW3
London postal district
The London postal district is the area in England, currently of , to which mail addressed to the LONDON post town is delivered. The area was initially devised in 1856 and throughout its history has been subject to periodic reorganisation, contraction and division into increasingly smaller postal...
, and 25 Brompton Square, SW3
London postal district
The London postal district is the area in England, currently of , to which mail addressed to the LONDON post town is delivered. The area was initially devised in 1856 and throughout its history has been subject to periodic reorganisation, contraction and division into increasingly smaller postal...
, where much of the action of Lucia in London takes place and where English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
placed a Blue Plaque
Blue plaque
A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person or event, serving as a historical marker....
in 1994.
Benson died in 1940 of throat cancer
Head and neck cancer
Head and neck cancer refers to a group of biologically similar cancers that start in the upper aerodigestive tract, including the lip, oral cavity , nasal cavity , paranasal sinuses, pharynx, and larynx. 90% of head and neck cancers are squamous cell carcinomas , originating from the mucosal lining...
in University College Hospital
University College Hospital
University College Hospital is a teaching hospital located in London, United Kingdom. It is part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and is closely associated with University College London ....
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
Works
Benson's first book was Sketches from Marlborough. He started his novel writing career with the (then) fashionably controversial Dodo (1893), and he followed it with a variety of satireand romantic melodrama. He repeated the success of Dodo, which featured a portrait of composer and militant suffragette Ethel Smyth
Ethel Smyth
Dame Ethel Mary Smyth, DBE was an English composer and a leader of the women's suffrage movement.- Early career :...
(which she "gleefully acknowledged", according to actress Prunella Scales
Prunella Scales
Prunella Scales CBE is an English actress, known for her role as Basil Fawlty's long-suffering wife in the British comedy Fawlty Towers and her award-nominated role as Queen Elizabeth II in the British film A Question of Attribution.-Career:Throughout her long career, Scales has usually been cast...
), with the same cast of characters a generation later: Dodo the Second (1914), "a unique chronicle of the pre-1914 Bright Young Things
Bright Young People
The Bright Young People was a nickname given by the tabloid press to a group of bohemian young aristocrats and socialites in 1920s London. They threw elaborate fancy dress parties, went on elaborate treasure hunts through nighttime London, and drank heavily and experimented with drugs—all of which...
" and Dodo Wonders (1921), "a first-hand social history
Social history
Social history, often called the new social history, is a branch of History that includes history of ordinary people and their strategies of coping with life. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in history departments...
of the Great War in Mayfair
Mayfair
Mayfair is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster.-History:Mayfair is named after the annual fortnight-long May Fair that took place on the site that is Shepherd Market today...
and the Shires
The Shires
Highcross Leicester is a shopping centre in Leicester, England. It was opened as The Shires in 1991 to supplement the ageing and run-down Haymarket Shopping Centre, also since re-developed. It was built on a central location within the city centre on Eastgates and High Street...
". The Mapp and Lucia series, written relatively late in his career, consists of six novels and two short stories. The novels are: Queen Lucia, Lucia in London, Miss Mapp (including the short story The Male Impersonator), Mapp and Lucia, Lucia's Progress (published as The Worshipful Lucia in the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
) and Trouble for Lucia. The short stories are "The Male Impersonator" and "Desirable Residences". Both appear in anthologies of Benson's short stories, and the former is also often appended to the end of the novel Miss Mapp.
The last three novels were serialized by London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television was the name of the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties including south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Warwickshire, east Dorset and...
for the fledgling Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
in 1985–6 under the series title Mapp and Lucia and starring Prunella Scales
Prunella Scales
Prunella Scales CBE is an English actress, known for her role as Basil Fawlty's long-suffering wife in the British comedy Fawlty Towers and her award-nominated role as Queen Elizabeth II in the British film A Question of Attribution.-Career:Throughout her long career, Scales has usually been cast...
, Geraldine McEwan
Geraldine McEwan
Geraldine McEwan is an English actor with a diverse history in theatre, film, and television. From 2004 to 2009 she appeared as Miss Marple, the Agatha Christie sleuth, for the series Marple.-Background:...
and Nigel Hawthorne
Nigel Hawthorne
Sir Nigel Barnard Hawthorne, CBE was an English actor, perhaps best remembered for his role as Sir Humphrey Appleby, the Permanent Secretary in the 1980s sitcom Yes Minister and the Cabinet Secretary in its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister. For this role he won four BAFTA Awards during the 1980s in the...
; the first four have been adapted for BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
by both Aubrey Woods
Aubrey Woods
Aubrey Woods is an English actor. He was born in London.His television credits include: Z-Cars, Up Pompeii!, Doctor Who , Blake's 7, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and Ever Decreasing Circles...
and (most recently) Ned Sherrin
Ned Sherrin
Edward George "Ned" Sherrin CBE was an English broadcaster, author and stage director. He qualified as a barrister and then worked in independent television before joining the BBC...
; the fifth, Lucia's Progress, was adapted for BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
in 2008 by John Peacock. During 2007, the television series was rerun on the British digital channel ITV3
ITV3
ITV3 is an entertainment television channel in the United Kingdom that is owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc. The channel was launched on 1 November 2004. ITV3 is the second largest UK multi-channel, second only to ITV2.-History:...
.
Benson was also known as a writer of ghost stories
Ghost story
A ghost story may be any piece of fiction, or drama, or an account of an experience, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them. Colloquially, the term can refer to any kind of scary story. In a narrower sense, the ghost story has...
, which frequently appear in collections. His 1906 short story, "The Bus-Conductor," a fatal-crash premonition tale about a person haunted by a hearse driver, has been adapted several times, notably in 1944 (in the film Dead of Night
Dead of Night
Dead of Night is a British portmanteau horror film made by Ealing Studios, its various episodes directed by Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden and Robert Hamer. The film stars Mervyn Johns, Googie Withers and Michael Redgrave...
and as an anecdote in Bennett Cerf
Bennett Cerf
Bennett Alfred Cerf was a publisher and co-founder of Random House. Cerf was also known for his own compilations of jokes and puns, for regular personal appearances lecturing across the United States, and for his television appearances in the panel game show What's My Line?.-Biography:Bennett Cerf...
's Ghost Stories anthology published the same year) and in a 1961 episode of The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode is a mixture of self-contained drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist...
. The catchphrase from the story, which even spawned an urban legend
Urban legend
An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...
, "Room for one more," also appears in in the 1986 Oingo Boingo
Oingo Boingo
Oingo Boingo was an American new wave band. They are best known for their influence on other musicians, their soundtrack contributions and their high energy Halloween concerts. The band was founded in 1972 as The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, a performance art group...
song, "Dead Man's Party
Dead Man's Party (song)
"Dead Man's Party" is a song by American New Wave band Oingo Boingo released as the third single from their fifth studio album Dead Man's Party....
."
Benson is also known for a series of biographies/autobiographies and memoirs, including one of Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood, whose novels are English literature standards...
. His last book, delivered to his publisher ten days before his death, was an autobiography entitled Final Edition.
H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
spoke highly of Benson's works in his "Supernatural Horror in Literature," most notably of his story "The Man Who Went Too Far."
A critical essay on Benson's ghost stories appears in S. T. Joshi
S. T. Joshi
Sunand Tryambak Joshi — known as S. T. Joshi — is an award-winning Indian American literary critic, novelist, and a leading figure in the study of Howard Phillips Lovecraft and other authors of weird and fantastic fiction...
's book The Evolution of the Weird Tale (2004).
Further "Mapp and Lucia" books have been written by Tom Holt
Tom Holt
Tom Holt is a British novelist.He was born in London, the son of novelist Hazel Holt, and was educated at Westminster School, Wadham College, Oxford, and The College of Law, London....
and Guy Fraser-Sampson.
Other novels
- Dodo: A Detail of the Day (1893)
- The Rubicon (1894)
- The Judgement Books (1895)
- Limitations (1896)
- The Babe, B.A. (1897)
- The Money Market (1898)
- The Vintage (1898)
- The Capsina (1899)
- Mammon and Co. (1899)
- The Princess Sophia (1900)
- The Luck of the Vails (1901)
- Scarlet and Hyssop (1902)
- An Act in a Backwater (1903)
- The Book of Months (1903)
- The Relentless City (1903)
- The Valkyries (1903)
- The Challoners (1904)
- The Angel of Pain (1905)
- The Image in the Sand (1905)
- The House of Defence (1906)
- Paul (1906)
- Sheaves (1907)
- The Blotting Book (1908)
- The Climber (1908)
- A Reaping (1909)
- Daisy's Aunt (1910)
- The Osbornes (1910)
- Account Rendered (1911)
- Juggernaut (1911)
- Mrs. Ames (1912)
- Dodo's Daughter (1913)
- Thorley Wier (1913)
- The Weaker Vessel (1913)
- Arundel (1914)
- Dodo the Second (1914)
- The Oakleyites (1915)
- Mike (also published as Michael) (1916)
- David BlaizeDavid BlaizeDavid Blaize is the title of a book by Edward Frederic Benson. The first edition was published in 1916. It was published by Hodder and Stoughton, London....
(1916) - The Freaks of Mayfair (1916)
- An Autumn Sowing (1917)
- Mr. Teddy (1917)
- David Blaize and the Blue Door (1918)
- Up and Down (1918)
- Across the Stream (1919)
- Robin Linnet (1919)
- Dodo Wonders (1921)
- Lovers and Friends (1921)
- Peter (1922)
- Colin: A Novel (1923)
- David of King'sDavid of King'sDavid of King's is the title of a novel by Edward Frederic Benson. The first edition was published in 1924. It was published by London, New York [etc.] : Hodder and Stoughton....
(1924) - Alan (1924)
- Colin II (1925)
- Rex (1925)
- A Tale of an Empty House (1925)
- Mezzanine (1926)
- Pharisees and Publicans (1926)
- Paying Guests (1929)
- The Inheritor (1930)
- Secret Lives (1932)
- Travail of Gold (1933)
- Raven's Brood (1934)
Short stories
- The Bus-Conductor, published in The Pall Mall MagazineThe Pall Mall MagazineThe Pall Mall Magazine was a monthly British literary magazine published between 1893 and 1914. Started by William Waldorf Astor as an offshoot of the Pall Mall Gazette, the magazine included poetry, short stories, serialized fiction, and general commentaries, along with extensive artwork...
in 1906 - The Room in the TowerThe Room in the TowerThe Room in the Tower is a short horror story by E.F. Benson, published in 1912. A shortened version was republished by Penguin Books in Level 2.-Plot summary:...
, and Other Stories (1912) - The Countess of Lowndes Square, and Other Stories (1920)
- Visible and Invisible (1923)
- "And the Dead Spake—", and The Horror Horn (1923)
- Expiation, and Naboth's Vineyard (1924)
- Spook Stories (1928)
- The Male Impersonator (1929)
- More Spook Stories (1934)
- The Collected Ghost Stories of E. F. Benson (Carroll & Graf, 1992)
- The Collected Spook Stories (Ash-Tree Press; Vol.1: The Terror by Night, 1998; Vol. 2: The Passenger, 1999; Vol. 3: Mrs Amworth, 2001; Vol. 4: The Face, 2003; Vol. 5: Sea Mist, 2005)
Non-Fiction
- Sketches from Marlborough (1888)
- Bensoniana (1912)
- Crescent and Iron Cross (1918)
- Sir Francis Drake (1927)
- Life of Alcibiades (1928)
- Ferdinand Magellan (1929)
- King Edward VII (1933)
- Charlotte Bronte (1930)
- The Kaiser and English Relations (1935)
- Queen Victoria (1935)
- Daughters of Queen Victoria (1935)
Further reading
- Watkins, Gwen. E.F. Benson and His Family and Friends. Rye, Sussex: E.F. Benson Society, 2003. ISBN 1898659060
External links
- E.F. Benson website
- Works by E F Benson at Project Gutenberg of Australia
- The Friends of Tilling
- Brompton Square map
- National Trust: Lamb House
- E.F. Benson Stories
- "The Bus-Conductor," 1906 published in Pall Mall Magazine
- Article on Mapp and Lucia by Philip HensherPhilip HensherPhilip Michael Hensher FRSL is an English novelist, critic and journalist.Hensher was born in South London, although he spent the majority of his childhood and adolescence in Sheffield, attending Tapton School. He did his undergraduate degree at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford before attending...
- E.F Benson Society
- E. F..Benson in Egypt
- A guide to the E. F. Papers at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library