Edward Frederick Benson (July 24, 1867 - February 29, 1940) was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist and short story writer, known professionally as E.F. Benson. His friends called him Fred.
E.F. Benson is principally known for his Mapp and Lucia series, consisting of six novels about Emmeline "Lucia" Lucas and Elizabeth Mapp. These are: Queen Lucia, Lucia in London, Miss Mapp, Mapp and Lucia, Lucia's Progress (published as The Worshipful Lucia in the US) and Trouble for Lucia. The last three books were serialized by commercial television in the 1980s under the series title "Mapp and Lucia." The principal setting of four of the books is a town called Tilling, which is recognizably based on Rye, East Sussex, where Benson lived for many years and served as Mayor. He also lived at 25 Brompton Square, London, where much of the action of Lucia in London takes place.
Benson was also known as a writer of ghost stories.
EdwardFrederickBenson (1867-1940) was born at Wellington College, where his father, Edward White Benson, later Archbishop of Canterbury, was the first headmaster.
Fred Benson was one of six children, of whom the four that survived to adulthood (Arthur, Fred, Hugh and Margaret) were all distinguished in a variety of intellectual pursuits.
Benson was associated with the British School at Athens from 1891 to 1895.
In the nineteenth century, Egyptian archaeology, as a male dominated occupation, was not prepared for Margaret Benson when, in 1895, she achieved the distinction of being the first woman to gain permission to conduct her own excavation in Egypt.
These four male Bensons are included in every encyclopedia and biographical dictionary since the turn of the century, yet Margaret does not get a line, even as the daughter of her famous father.
Fred (E. Benson) was qualified to help because he had intended to pursue archaeology as a career, studied Classical Languages and archaeology at Cambridge, and was awarded a scholarship at King's College on the basis of his work.
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