Mapp And Lucia And Lifeboats

At the end of Cromer Pier, in the county of Norfolk, England, you'll see a ramp descending into the sea from a large brown building. Inside this branch of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, you'll find the Tamar, the ship that slides down that ramp and sets out to aid those in peril on the sea.

With its dual, 1000 horse power engines, the Tamar can race off to a vessel in distress. The rescuers inside, clad in their waterproof gear, sit in seats designed to absorb the impact of hitting storm waves at anything up to 25 knots per hour. Once the crew arrive, they can pull a vessel out of dangerous waters, or tow it back to port, even if it weighs up to seven tons. 

Should they need to transfer people to their ship, or pull them out of the sea, they have any number of rescue items easily within reach. Metal arms swing out. Ropes and winches deploy. The threatened are hauled aboard to safety, and either transferred to a helicopter, or transported back to shore. Despite its compact size, the Tamar can hold as many as one hundred people, although passengers might find conditions a little cramped. 

In E. F. Benson's novel Mapp And Lucia, society matrons Elizabeth Mapp and Emmeline Lucas are swept out to sea when a storm hits the English seaside town of Tilling. Friends spy the two clinging to Lucia's dining room table amid roiling waves. They send out a plea for rescue to local fishing vessels, the coastguard, and the Lifeboat station. But none of the ships can reach the women fast enough. After awhile, with no further sightings, the ships give up their search for the women, supposing them lost to the sea.

Had powerful and capable ships like the Tamar existed in the 1930s, E. F. Benson would have needed to work harder to convince his readers that the local Lifeboat station had failed to rescue the leading lights of Tilling society. As for Lucia's dining table serving as a short term raft...well, that's timeless.

Dragon Dave

Oh, the Places We've Seen: Part 1

As we firm up our plans for this year's trip to England, it made me reflect on the special places we visited on our three previous trips, and I thought I'd share my thoughts with you.

One of those special places was Rye, where author E. F. Benson lived and set four of his Mapp & Lucia novels. A ten episode "Mapp & Lucia" miniseries was filmed there in 1985. It starred Geraldine McEwan as Lucia (who also played Agatha Christie's spinster-sleuth Miss Marple), Prunella Scales as Mapp (who also played Mrs. Fawlty in "Fawlty Towers") and Nigel Hawthorne as Georgie (who also played Sir Humphrey Appleby in "Yes Minister" & "Yes, Prime Minister"). I bought the first five episodes in a five VHS set many years ago, which were adapted from the fourth novel titled Mapp & Lucia (from which, of course, the book and TV series took its name). A handful of years later, I realized that I really enjoyed them, as I periodically pulled them out and watched them again. More years later, I came across a second series of five episodes on DVD, which were based on the fifth and six novels. Then I discovered the novels, Mapp & Lucia first, then the first novel Queen Lucia, and gradually accumulated the entire saga. After that, as I enjoyed reading those novels so much, I began looking around for other Benson novels to read. 

Anyway: Rye. It's a beautiful seaside town, and the tourists certainty fill it up on the weekends. We enjoyed walking the narrow, winding streets, and seeing all the locations that inspired Benson to write his stories, as well as those the film crews used for the miniseries. One unexpected discovery was that E. F. Benson isn't the biggest literary figure who lived in Rye. That honor belongs to American novelist Henry James (but I haven't read him yet, so he doesn't count. Yet). Benson moved into the house after James died, and according to all reports, acknowledged him as a literary icon. Recently, I've learned that the British film "Yellowbeard," which featured some of the Monty Python gang in addition to Cheech and Chong, shot some scenes on the idyllic, cobbled streets of this medieval town. That was a wacky, funny movie. I'll have to watch it again.

Another great place I visited was Holmfirth, where "Last of the Summer Wine," the world's longest-running sitcom, was filmed. It was so neat to walk the streets and the surrounding countryside, take the bus tour, and visit Sid's Cafe, wherein Compo Simmonite, Norman Clegg, and Foggy Dewhurst often ventured for a cup of tea, and usually received far more than they bargained for from Ivy, the proprietor (and Sid's wife). The ability to sit down there, and drink a cup of tea...it was just indescribable. Amazing.

Even better, we never got an earful from the proprietor.

To follow up our love of James Herriot's books, and the TV series "All Creatures Great and Small," we spent several days in Thirsk, where he lived and worked. Later, we stopped in beautiful Askrigg, where much of the fictional Darrowby was set. It was such a pretty little town, set in the Yorkshire Dales, that we had to return there for another visit.

You no doubt recall our visit to Brighton, where we attended the World Fantasy Convention, and saw one of my favorite Fantasy authors Terry Pratchett. That week will always be special to me, as I got to see him before he passed away earlier this year. Meeting and talking with Peter F Hamilton, K. W. Jeter, and Mary Robinette Kowal was also lots of fun.

Another attraction of Brighton was that it served as the setting for E. F. Benson's novel The Blotting Book. We enjoyed walking the streets he mentions in the novel, and taking buses and trains to see places farther from the hotel where crucial acts in his story took place. A really, really special visit.

What amazes me most is how much we've been able to tailor these trips to our interests using the information so readily available over the internet. Planning trips like these would have been much more difficult, if not impossible, ten or fifteen years ago. One of the reasons we weren't visiting England back then was because we had little incentive to go. But now, my wife and I can look up places of interest, read about the authors who lived there, map out potential routes and travel times, and book hotels, all while sitting on the couch with our laptops, comparing notes and ideas. We can also find books online, often for free, from authors that are mentioned as living or writing in places we will visit. Reading those books may give us an enhanced appreciation for the places we will visit, and suggest additions to our itinerary. Back then, I was angry that the airlines were downsizing their telephone operators, and forcing us to book tickets online. I missed the personal service and interaction, and saw it as an unwelcome dehumanizing aspect of technological innovation. Now, although we may be spending far longer planning our vacations, we're following up ideas as we think of them, and those discoveries lead us to other points of interest, and so on, and so forth, without needing to visit the library, pay a travel agent, or book spaces on a tour. As a result, we can fine-tune our trips to our interests far more effectively than we ever could have back then. 

There were good old days in the past, but today and tomorrow hold the truly Great New Days.

Dragon Dave

Always Hungry For News

Imagine you woke up one morning and there was no Internet.  Radio was a relatively new, and untrusted, phenomenon.  To learn of world events, you had to read a newspaper.  But to learn news relevant to you, especially what your friends and neighbors were up to, you were limited to a landline telephone, the postal service, and physical interactions with others.  A fantastic world, you say?  Not at all.  I’m merely describing life a century ago, in the early twentieth century.

In his Mapp & Lucia novels, E. F. Benson depicts life in English villages in the 1920s and 30s.  We view events largely through the eyes of the fashionable set, people who have made or inherited their money, and live as graciously and comfortably as they can.  Of course, they all want to be thought well of.  In a world without easily accessible entertainment such as television or Youtube, they hope to be invited to all the best parties and social events.  No one must ever have cause to exclude them!  So after scanning the newspapers every morning, they go into town, and while walking around the square, or visiting the shops, they ask each other if they’ve heard any interesting news.  Likewise, their servants must pick up the latest news about their friends, neighbors, and rivals whenever they leave the house. 

With so much “news” flying around, one’s status in society could rise and fall by the hour.  So, while gathering the most reliable and relevant news, a person like Mapp or Lucia also dispensed “news” that presented her in the best possible light.  Of course, only the simple-minded personally stated such positive stories.  The intelligent person hinted at the news she wished to convey, then relied on her friends and servants to confirm the veracity of her story.

A newcomer to the Mapp & Lucia series, or books about life in English villages of that era, might wonder if people back then were more self-absorbed.  But people today are just as hungry to learn information relevant to them, and to correct misunderstandings so that their friends, employers, and peers think the best of them.  So we use tools like our Blackberry, tablet, computer, or smartphone, and access sites like Facebook and Twitter to keep informed.  All that changes is the way that we access and dispense that information.

Of course, some folks just look more fashionable than the rest of us while doing so.

Dragon Dave

Leaving Holmfirth is Hard to Do

Bill Owen's final resting place.

Our time in Holmfirth, while rich with meaning, rapidly drew to a close.  We had left so much undone.  The series depicted so many beautiful churches over the course of its thirty-seven year run, and we had wanted to see some of them.  We could have visited the church yard in which Bill Owen, who played Compo in the series, was buried.  We had planned to dine in the White Horse Inn, where Foggy, Norman, and Compo occasionally begin or end their adventures.  And of course, had we done more research, we could have found Norman Clegg’s house, and photographed it.

What one family has made of their life in Holmfirth.

“Last of the Summer Wine,” more than any other British comedy, epitomizes what drew me to England.  For the best comedy not only provides engaging characters, but allows them to grow and change.  While the number of episodes made each year tends to be small, one follows these characters over time: we celebrate their triumphs, we rue their failures.  The best of these shows, even if shot mostly in studio, also depict current life in Britain.  This style of living, so different from our own, drew us here.  Exploring Holmfirth has illuminated so many aspects of English life that tantalized us back in America.  So leaving Holmfirth is hard, because even though our journey in England will continue, our insights into this particular style of English living have drawn to a close.

Might Foggy convince Norman and Compo
 to ride their bicycles down this slope
and across these fields?

Another reason why leaving Holmfirth is hard is because the British don’t make sitcoms like they used to.  Those great shows shown on BBC and ITV, which once journeyed across the Atlantic Ocean, no longer reach American shores.  This is not to say that TV shows are no longer being made in England: of course they are.  But the style of humor, as well as the manner of production, has entirely changed.  I still enjoy watching the new dramas and mysteries made in England, but they don’t resonate in me the same way that the great comedies from the 1970s, 80s, and 90s do.  Why this should be, I do not know.  Late in his life, E.F. Benson, a prolific English author, purportedly said that of all the different types of stories, novels, and nonfiction books he had written, he felt that his lighter, comedic works spoke most clearly to the human condition.  So perhaps I am not alone in my sentiments.  For of all the works that E.F. Benson wrote, what he remains best known for are his “Mapp and Lucia” novels.

Time doesn't seem to exist here.

Time has a way of lulling one into complacency.  When first arriving at a particular stop in a journey, one thinks one has plenty of time for everything.  But regardless of how well one has scheduled and prioritized one’s adventures, suddenly realization strikes: Time has flown, and now one must leave.  Yet, while leaving a particular stop means the end of one journey, it also heralds the beginning of another.  While we remain saddened by what we have left behind, we hunger for what is yet to come.  I shall do my best to focus upon the joys we shall surely discover, as our footsteps lead us relentlessly onward.

Thanks for understanding,

Dragon Dave

A Ramble, a Triumph, and a Risky Sacrifice

"Ooh, bookshops!"

After we left St. Martins in the Fields, the next stop on our list was the British Museum.  The one o’clock service had left us feeling rather mellow, so as we walked London’s streets, we wandered inside any stores that interested us, particularly several bookshops, where I searched the shelves for the work of several English authors.  I eventually found a novel I didn’t have by E. F. Benson.  This prolific English novelist wrote in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but his work is little remembered in the States.  I had hunted down all six books in his Mapp and Lucia series. Now I had a new novel to enjoy.  In Mrs. Ames, the title character dominates everyone in her small town, but when latest social triumph backfires, her previously obedient husband falls under another woman’s thrall.  In order to reclaim him, she is forced to endure a painful journey of self-discovery.  While it was yet another novel of social manners (I had been hoping for one of his biographies, memoirs, or tales of the supernatural), it was a still a new book to read by an author who has brought me much joy.  I left the store in a triumphant mood.

After awhile, we realized that we had become lost, and consulted the doorman standing outside a boutique hotel.  He directed our footsteps onward, and a few blocks later, we found ourselves outside the British Museum.

We joined the throng, and made our way inside.  The lives of the ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, and Greeks hold great interest for me, and here I was, where I could explore so many relics of these ancient civilizations.  Yet, I suddenly realized that with the afternoon passing so quickly, we could spend the rest of the day here (just an hour or two was left until closing), or we could hurry to see the other places on our list before they closed for the day.  After a quick huddle, we decided that we really needed more time to explore this building’s many treasures.  So reluctantly, we consigned the British Museum to another vacation, and left in search of Covent Garden.

A beautiful woman poses for my camera

It may seem odd for someone to choose a popular shopping area such as Covent Garden over studying such important historical artifacts as the Rosetta Stone, a limestone fragment from the Sphinx, or statues from the Parthenon.  But my primary purpose in traveling to England was to understand how people here lived their daily lives, as well as gain deeper insight into their culture and traditions.  And there was one shop in particular that we wanted to visit, one that epitomized the difference between our two great countries: Neal’s Yard Dairy.  The moment we had seen it in a Rick Steves’ travelogue on PBS, we had decided that we needed to go there. 

Neal’s Yard is a small area located near Covent Garden.  In his book Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years, Michael Palin relates that he and Terry Gilliam were once part owners of a film studio there.  I find this ironic, because if you poll any group of Monty Python fans, along with the “Ministry of Silly Walks” and the “Dead Parrot” sketch, another that is sure to be mentioned is “The Cheese Shop.”  Cheese plays an important role in English culture.  In shows as diverse as “Fawlty Towers” and “Yes, Prime Minister,” people are seen concluding their meals with several types of cheese.  And these are not varieties that most Americans would recognize, but those that, if they are offered in our supermarkets, are almost always imported from other countries.  As Stephen Fry (actor, writer, comedian, and poet) states in his book, Stephen Fry in America:

“America doesn’t get cheese.  They put up with the most hideous orange melted gunk, weird vestigial descendants of Munster and Cheddar…Cheese, in the real sense of the word, along with proper bread, can only be found in special places in America, usually cities with a student and artist population.”

We wanted to discover what exactly it was that the English “got” and Americans didn’t.  For this, we had sacrificed seeing the priceless treasures of the British Museum.  We could only hope that we would not later regret our decision.

Related Dragon Cache stories

Our visit to St. Martins in the Fields

The first entry in my England series

How Monty Python battled for Americans’ rights

Related Internet Links

A little about E. F. Benson

The E. F. Benson Society

A Journey into English Fiction: Part 2

Why I listened to her sweet whisperings I still do not know, but something in me found English Fiction desirable, and made me yearn for more.  Initially, this occurred through the imported programs shown on public television stations, and what episodes in other areas friends and relatives could share with me via videotapes.  There was something distinctly different and unique about British entertainment that I found at least as entertaining as its American counterparts.  I might have enjoyed comedies like "Family Ties" and "Home Improvement," but I also came to love "The Good Life" (or "Good Neighbors") and "To The Manor Born."  For all the flash, action, and great characters of shows like "Magnum P.I." and "Miami Vice," I also found the style and clue-detection of Sherlock Holmes and Hercules Poirot to my liking.  And then there was Doctor Who, that timelord who could travel anywhere in space or time, and even bring himself back to life (albeit with a new face and personality) when his old body died.  How could a starship captain, even ones so great as James T. Kirk or Jean Luc Picard, compete with that?


Gradually, a love of such entertainment made me yearn to visit the country in which it was made, in order to learn what everyday life was like there.  I yearned to immerse myself in the culture that had given birth such enthralling characters, vivid settings, and world-threatening (even universe-threatening) situations.  But international travel is expensive, and the preparations for it much more laborious than that for destinations closer to home.  So for many years, I contented myself with the movies and TV programs I could watch, and the novels of English authors whom I admired.


Time has a knack of preparing the individual in ways which, on a daily basis, are not immediately apparent.  And so, one day I awakened to the realization that not only was I able to visit England, but that delay would only bring lessened capability to cope with the many differences I would find there.  The time to go was now: delay made little sense, and would only remove me further from that which had initially attracted me to visit this foreign country.  And so here I am, my bags stowed above my head and between my feet, writing these words in a small, black journal atop a wobbly plastic tray, and watching white, puffy clouds pass below the wing of an airplane.  Into my little notebook I plan to record some of what I learn and see and do, and plan to share some of those experiences with you when I return home, interspersing those blog entries with other topics I hope you will find interesting and enjoyable. 


But for now, I travel East, not only to connect with the land of my ancestors, not just to visit historic and interesting sites, but to better understand the places and the outlook of those who created such memorable characters such as Alec and Zoe Calender from the TV show "May to December," the Inspectors Morse and Lewis and Sergeant Hathaway inspired by the novels of Colin Dexter, and of course, those great rivals Miss Elizabeth Mapp and Mrs. Emmeline Lucas, immortalized in the Mapp and Lucia novels of E.F. Benson.


My arrival in Heathrow is but a few hours away, yet seems so unreal.  Despite all the preparations, my stomach is twisted in knots.  What will I find in England, and will it be to my liking?  Fear clings to anticipation; dread is mixed with yearning.  But the time for turning back has passed.  The path ahead is uncertain, unknown.  I find a measure of strength in the dogged determination of Captain Christopher Pike, and his willingness to still venture to alien worlds, even after the deaths of his crew on Rigel 7 and his imprisonment on Talos 4.  For one thing is certain.  Whether I am ready or not....


England, here I come!