DR John G, after I moved to New York in June 1979, there was a big Mapp and Lucia interest, and all the books were back in print, and everyone was reading them. Then, in the mid-1980s there was the fantastic BBC series with Prunella Scales and Geraldine McEwen, which I believe was on Masterpiece Theatre. I didn't haqve a TV then. I had a complete novels anthology Make Way for Lucia and read them all. They have a similar tone to Wodehouse because they're written in the same time of the 1920s and 30s. E F Benson, the author, seems more interested in the various English village "types," from the vain pretentious socialites like Mapp and Lucia to the butch military men, the repressed gay menb the tweedy butch lesbian. Neither Mapp nor Lucia is particularly sympathetic since the two independently wealthy ladies have an intense dislike and rivalry over which is more educated, cultivated, and best suited to be the village's social leader.
The first BBC miniseries with Scales and McEwen is superb. There has been a second attempt, but I've not heard good thingsa about it. I may see if it's on Amazon Prime.
