E.F. Benson

Edward Frederic Benson was born to a family of writers–-both his parents and three of his surviving siblings were all authors. And, according to some accounts, most of his immediate family was queer. Benson himself was gay, and included gay and lesbian characters in some of his works. His mother, after his father’s death, moved her long-time female companion into their house, and his sister Margaret, an Egyptologist as well as an author, also enjoyed a long-term same-sex relationship.

A prolific writer, E.F. Benson is best known for the Mapp and Lucia series, which was popular in its time and has continued to attract readers to the present day. Full of camp wit and barbed social commentary, the series was adapted several times for radio and twice for television by the BBC, and other authors continued the series with more books after Benson’s death. An E.F. Benson Society existed until just this year (2025), and the Friends of Tilling celebrates Benson and his work, especially the Mapp and Lucia books, which are partially set in the fictional seaside town of Tilling.

Benson was also well-known for his ghost stories, most of which were shorter works published in magazines and later in collections. H.P. Lovecraft is said to have been a fan of these “spook stories,” as Benson called them. He also wrote several non-fiction biographies of historical figures.

Though he was very discreet about his sexuality, Benson’s diaries have left behind a record of some of his affections toward schoolmates at Cambridge. In his later life, he shared a villa in Capri with John Ellingham Brooks , one of a circle of homosexual men who expatriated to Capri after the trial of Oscar Wilde. He died in 1940 in London, only days after completing Final Edition , an autobiography (Final Edition can be borrowed at this link, but not downloaded).

Works by E.F. Benson

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/812 Complete list of works at Project Gutenberg

https://archive.org/search?query=e.f.+benson Works by and about Benson at archive.org

https://librivox.org/author/1776?primary_key=1776&search_category=author&search_page=1&search_form=get_results&search_order=alpha Complete list of works at Librivox

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mapp_and_Lucia_(novel_series)

https://librivox.org/queen-lucia-by-edward-frederic-benson/ Queen Lucia–Audiobook (single narrator)

https://librivox.org/miss-mapp-by-e-f-benson/ Miss Mapp–Audiobook (multiple narrators)

https://librivox.org/lucia-in-london-by-e-f-benson/ Lucia in London–Audiobook (single narrator)

https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/e-f-benson/ A bibliography of Benson’s books grouped by series and listed in order

https://librivox.org/short-ghost-and-horror-collection-035-by-various/ “And the Dead Spake,” #4 in this collection

https://librivox.org/short-ghost-and-horror-collection-074-by-various/ “Atmospherics,” #2 in this collection

https://librivox.org/short-ghost-and-horror-collection-034-by-various/ “Between the Lights,” #4 in this collection

SOURCES AND FURTHER READING

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._F._Benson

https://newtownreviewofbooks.com.au/e-f-benson-his-life-and-times-an-appreciation-by-walter-mason/

https://lgbthistoryuk.org/wiki/E_F_Benson

https://www.friendsoftilling.com/e-f-benson

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/brian-masters/the-life-of-ef-benson/ A biography of Benson, which can be borrowed here: https://archive.org/details/lifeofefbenson00mast/mode/2up

https://efbensonsociety.org/ defunct as of 2025

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Benson_(hostess)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Benson

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ellingham_Brooks

https://archives.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/repositories/2/resources/2911 Benson Archives at Oxford (sadly not digitized)

https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt8580064k/entire_text/ Finding Aid for Benson Archives at UCLA, also sadly not digitized