Mapp & Lucia, Cold Comfort Farm, The Provincial Lady

I'm in the midst of yet another reread of the Mapp & Lucia books by E.F. Benson. They've been my reliable source of comfort rereading for almost 40 years, and so far their efficacy doesn't appear to have diminished. I loved the 1986 BBC adaptation with Geraldine McEwan, and I recently found out (10 years after the fact) that the BBC did another version in 2014 starring Miranda Richardson. I'll be checking that out too at some point. In the meantime, I'm happy to be escaping into the print versions of Riseholme and Tilling, along with their nutty, vexing, ridiculous, irresistible inhabitants--Lucia, Georgie, quaint Irene, dear Diva, and all the rest.

IIRC (and there's no guarantee that I do), it was my colleague at U of T Press, the late Jean Jamieson, who gave me my first copy of Cold Comfort Farm. That's up next on my get-away-from-it-all reading list, followed by the Provincial Lady series by E.M. Delafield, "a perfectly straightforward account of the many disconcerting facets presented by everyday life to the average woman."

Clearly I have a type when it comes to works that offer solace and escapist warm fuzzies along with a salutary shot of parodic vinegar and wry. :)