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Paying Guests
We are at “Wentworth,” a guest house in the fictional town of Bolton Spa, which offers baths and nasty-smelling waters to a group of permanent invalids. Wentworth is terribly genteel, recognized not only for the comfort it offers but also for the social standing of its guests. Who — this being a Benson novel — are silly at best, stupendously annoying at worst. The stars of the show are the pompous, self-regarding Colonel Chase, a former Indian Army officer who lords it over the other guests at Wentworth, bragging incessantly about his excellent health and bullying them all at the bridge table, a pair of middle-aged spinsters who later become a couple and a Mrs. Bliss who espouses Mental Science, a thin disguise for Christian Science...
286 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1929
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About the author
E.F. Benson
1,028 books354 followersEdward Frederic "E. F." Benson was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist and short story writer.
E. F. Benson was the younger brother of A.C. Benson, who wrote the words to "Land of Hope and Glory", Robert Hugh Benson, author of several novels and Roman Catholic apologetic works, and Margaret Benson, an author and amateur Egyptologist.
Benson died during 1940 of throat cancer at the University College Hospital, London. He is buried in the cemetery at Rye, East Sussex.
Last paragraph from Wikipedia
E. F. Benson was the younger brother of A.C. Benson, who wrote the words to "Land of Hope and Glory", Robert Hugh Benson, author of several novels and Roman Catholic apologetic works, and Margaret Benson, an author and amateur Egyptologist.
Benson died during 1940 of throat cancer at the University College Hospital, London. He is buried in the cemetery at Rye, East Sussex.
Last paragraph from Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
July 7, 2025
Ok, this is a well travelled path for Benson (humorous power struggles in a very small place) but that doesn't make this novella any less funny!
The 'paying guests' staying at this guest house in a 'Health Spa' village & their charming hosts navigate their lives & like in the Mapp & Lucia series, certain characters are trying to come out on top. Their concerns are petty, but important to them! There was one particular matter that just had me howling with laughter & if the ending was a bit obvious - so what!
Recommended as good escapist fare, which I think most of us need now!
The 'paying guests' staying at this guest house in a 'Health Spa' village & their charming hosts navigate their lives & like in the Mapp & Lucia series, certain characters are trying to come out on top. Their concerns are petty, but important to them! There was one particular matter that just had me howling with laughter & if the ending was a bit obvious - so what!
Recommended as good escapist fare, which I think most of us need now!
December 11, 2023
Benson, the son of an Archbishop of Canterbury (who built the Cathedral in Truro, Cornwall), and the brother of some serious clerics, is unlike his brothers, a hoot. Everybody knows this from the Lucia series, but for anyone who's ever stayed at a B&B or rooming house, this may be funnier. Benson wrote almost a hundred books, including three or four biographies and memoirs; one tells of Queen Victoria's visit to their home. EFB will never be "taught" in colleges, and that raises questions about the whole enterprise of literature classes. He's too funny to be included, and he writes with too much ease. But surely Chaucer was funny, and wrote with ease.
Set in Bolton Spa, where infirm people go to "savour the waters" or to be "pickled daily" in its saline baths, is Wentworth. Owned and run by two sisters (upbeat Mrs Oxney and negative Mrs Bertram, both Margaret and Amy widows) they rent rooms for months to Colonel Chase who counts his miles on a bicycle and calls lunch "tiffin" as when serving in India, and to Miss Howard (the Muses, since she paints and sings and recites) and to Mr Kemp and his daughter. Wentworth stands alone amid gardens and golf putting greens, while its competition are semi-detached houses given grand names like Balmoral.
Benson's wit rises from each page, like Mrs Oxney, "Though she did not want [lack] money, she liked it, and though she liked a holiday, she did not want it"(1).* "As a girl, she had a mop of black hair, a quick beady eye, and a long nose remarkably like a crow. But now the black hair had turned a most becoming grey.."(2). Now, amiable and tactful, while her sister Amy is "still crow-like, with a capacity for seeing the dark side, and for croaking over it"(3).
Into this vale of illness enters Mrs Bliss, with a limp but no pain. She says, "Pain is Error. Omnipotent Mind governs all"(25) A disciple of Mary Baker Eddy of Boston, though a different book cited. (This reviewer gets social security because his wife worked as a Christian Science reader; ironically, also Medicare because the Church dutifully paid into both.)
She tells Mr Kemp he cannot feel pain, and bigod, that night when he turns, he has no pain. Kemp had "taken up the profession of invalidism" two years before his wife died, He resented her leaving her fortune to daughter Florence, only a 50% life estate to him, an "ungrateful return for all the care he had allowed her to take of him"(36). Flo had been inspired by Mrs Holders' beating the condescending Colonel, self-styled Bridge guru, and she planned a similar revolt against her father's demands. She imagines he might have enticed many women to marry, since he is "remarkably handsome" (we find to our shock, this tall invalid) but they must have noted his "unique selfishness"(37).
We learn rain makes the Bolton roads muddy, so not yet paved. As in all English writers, we must translate Briticisms like "chimney piece" (mantle-piece) and "waaistcoat" (vest) and "cracknell" (savory cracker) and "omnibus" (bus), and even "deal" (pine) flooring which must be covered with a carpet.
British class differences prevail, as Flo Kemp identifies the painting she bought "to no one in particular, not having been introduced [to Lady Appledore]"(126). An American can speak to anyone, introduced or not. The plot seems to move toward marriage, specifically Col Chase's interest in Miss Alice Howard, pianist and painter, interest increasing as Alice describes her place in Kent, which the Col thinks must be a manor house. In fact, Flo Kemp urges Alice to suggest manor house features, to elicit a proposal from the Col-- who should've proposed to her house, The Croft, in Tunbridge Wells. (My college friend Brown Leach had relatives there, so I visited it early, in 1968). The Colonel does marry at novel's end, but perhaps Miss Howard joins another lover, of another sex.
*Pages in Benediction Classics, Oxford.
Set in Bolton Spa, where infirm people go to "savour the waters" or to be "pickled daily" in its saline baths, is Wentworth. Owned and run by two sisters (upbeat Mrs Oxney and negative Mrs Bertram, both Margaret and Amy widows) they rent rooms for months to Colonel Chase who counts his miles on a bicycle and calls lunch "tiffin" as when serving in India, and to Miss Howard (the Muses, since she paints and sings and recites) and to Mr Kemp and his daughter. Wentworth stands alone amid gardens and golf putting greens, while its competition are semi-detached houses given grand names like Balmoral.
Benson's wit rises from each page, like Mrs Oxney, "Though she did not want [lack] money, she liked it, and though she liked a holiday, she did not want it"(1).* "As a girl, she had a mop of black hair, a quick beady eye, and a long nose remarkably like a crow. But now the black hair had turned a most becoming grey.."(2). Now, amiable and tactful, while her sister Amy is "still crow-like, with a capacity for seeing the dark side, and for croaking over it"(3).
Into this vale of illness enters Mrs Bliss, with a limp but no pain. She says, "Pain is Error. Omnipotent Mind governs all"(25) A disciple of Mary Baker Eddy of Boston, though a different book cited. (This reviewer gets social security because his wife worked as a Christian Science reader; ironically, also Medicare because the Church dutifully paid into both.)
She tells Mr Kemp he cannot feel pain, and bigod, that night when he turns, he has no pain. Kemp had "taken up the profession of invalidism" two years before his wife died, He resented her leaving her fortune to daughter Florence, only a 50% life estate to him, an "ungrateful return for all the care he had allowed her to take of him"(36). Flo had been inspired by Mrs Holders' beating the condescending Colonel, self-styled Bridge guru, and she planned a similar revolt against her father's demands. She imagines he might have enticed many women to marry, since he is "remarkably handsome" (we find to our shock, this tall invalid) but they must have noted his "unique selfishness"(37).
We learn rain makes the Bolton roads muddy, so not yet paved. As in all English writers, we must translate Briticisms like "chimney piece" (mantle-piece) and "waaistcoat" (vest) and "cracknell" (savory cracker) and "omnibus" (bus), and even "deal" (pine) flooring which must be covered with a carpet.
British class differences prevail, as Flo Kemp identifies the painting she bought "to no one in particular, not having been introduced [to Lady Appledore]"(126). An American can speak to anyone, introduced or not. The plot seems to move toward marriage, specifically Col Chase's interest in Miss Alice Howard, pianist and painter, interest increasing as Alice describes her place in Kent, which the Col thinks must be a manor house. In fact, Flo Kemp urges Alice to suggest manor house features, to elicit a proposal from the Col-- who should've proposed to her house, The Croft, in Tunbridge Wells. (My college friend Brown Leach had relatives there, so I visited it early, in 1968). The Colonel does marry at novel's end, but perhaps Miss Howard joins another lover, of another sex.
*Pages in Benediction Classics, Oxford.
January 15, 2025
I’ll read anything by E.F. Benson - his social novels of the wealthy, constantly bickering denizens of Tilling (the Mapp & Lucia novels), or here, the somewhat wealthy inhabitants of a boarding house at Bolton Spa - tickle me with their skewering of self-deluded, self-centered people.
Here at Wentworth in Bolton Spa, a seaside watering hole with healing baths, Mrs. Oxney and her sister Mrs. Bertram run things while ill patrons and some permanent residents come and go. There’s Colonel Chase, the gruff, bluff, hale and hearty retired Indian hand who bicycles every day and drones on about his pedometer and how far he’s gone; he instructs everyone in how to play bridge properly, has a stash of India stories he trots out regularly, and can be temperamental and moody if his every whim isn’t catered to immediately.
There’s Miss Howard, the resident muse, who paints, warbles, plays the piano, and tittups through the house in a girlish way; she’s long left girlhood behind, but refuses to let up on the girlish airs.
Current residents seeking cures are Mr. Kemp, who never met an illness he didn’t like, and relentlessly puts down his oppressed daughter Florence, his constant attendant. Then there’s Mrs. Bliss, who suffers badly from arthritis but believes strictly in “Mind”, a method of mental healing she enthusiastically tries to share with other residents - she claims she’s only doing the baths and massage treatments to please her husband.
There are also a young man and older woman, Tim Bullingdon and Mrs. Holders, both wealthy and needing the treatments for debilitating mobility issues, who play the role of ‘straight men’ for the reader, the only two who see through all of the hypocrisy around them. As my introduction notes: ”Throughout, Mrs. Holders and Tim Bullingdon have been the mocking outsiders who see the others for what they are: smug, self-satisfied, self-deceiving bores.”
I first read this decades ago, then discovered the Mapp & Lucia novels. Upon rereading I see several of the same rather ridiculous ‘types’, but am still tickled. The introduction to my used Hogarth Press edition was delightful, interesting, and really set the stage for my enjoyable reread after so many years. It opens with: “Before we get Deep and Analytical about this book let us be clear that E.F. Benson is one of our finest humorists and Paying Guestsis a hoot from start to finish.” I agree wholeheartedly!
Here at Wentworth in Bolton Spa, a seaside watering hole with healing baths, Mrs. Oxney and her sister Mrs. Bertram run things while ill patrons and some permanent residents come and go. There’s Colonel Chase, the gruff, bluff, hale and hearty retired Indian hand who bicycles every day and drones on about his pedometer and how far he’s gone; he instructs everyone in how to play bridge properly, has a stash of India stories he trots out regularly, and can be temperamental and moody if his every whim isn’t catered to immediately.
There’s Miss Howard, the resident muse, who paints, warbles, plays the piano, and tittups through the house in a girlish way; she’s long left girlhood behind, but refuses to let up on the girlish airs.
Current residents seeking cures are Mr. Kemp, who never met an illness he didn’t like, and relentlessly puts down his oppressed daughter Florence, his constant attendant. Then there’s Mrs. Bliss, who suffers badly from arthritis but believes strictly in “Mind”, a method of mental healing she enthusiastically tries to share with other residents - she claims she’s only doing the baths and massage treatments to please her husband.
There are also a young man and older woman, Tim Bullingdon and Mrs. Holders, both wealthy and needing the treatments for debilitating mobility issues, who play the role of ‘straight men’ for the reader, the only two who see through all of the hypocrisy around them. As my introduction notes: ”Throughout, Mrs. Holders and Tim Bullingdon have been the mocking outsiders who see the others for what they are: smug, self-satisfied, self-deceiving bores.”
I first read this decades ago, then discovered the Mapp & Lucia novels. Upon rereading I see several of the same rather ridiculous ‘types’, but am still tickled. The introduction to my used Hogarth Press edition was delightful, interesting, and really set the stage for my enjoyable reread after so many years. It opens with: “Before we get Deep and Analytical about this book let us be clear that E.F. Benson is one of our finest humorists and Paying Guestsis a hoot from start to finish.” I agree wholeheartedly!
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October 29, 2022Paying Guests by author, biographer, and memoirist E. F. Benson, first published in 1929, is a standalone novel, which appeared in publication order somewhere between his best-known Mapp and Lucia books. This story is set in the fictional Bolton Spa and around Wentworth, a boarding house which is far more elegant and luxurious than others, with two bathrooms (and a third being added), and offering its guests a golf course, a croquet lawn, tennis courts and a garden, besides hot meals on Sundays. Its proprietress is a widow Mrs Oxney, who runs the place with her sister Mrs Betram.
Their guests include a range of eccentrics—from Mrs Bliss who claims to believe only in the power of the Mind to cure herself and others, to Mr Kemp whose ‘profession’ is invalidism and who treats his poor daughter Florence like little more than his attendant with her having no life of her own; and Mrs Holders and Mr Bullingdon, genuinely there for the cure. Besides these temporary visitors, there are the more permanent residents, including a retired Indian army officer, Col Chase who considers himself (and is likewise treated) as the most important resident, showing off much of the time his physical prowess—on his cycle or on foot, his pedometer the ‘proof’ of his achievements; and Miss Alice Howard, a reasonably well-off spinster, with many talents from improvs on the piano to sketching.
Life at Bolton for the ‘patients’ consists of treatment at the baths, and massages and other times spent with the crossword or bridge; while Col Chase keeps busy with his walks and exercise, and Miss Howard with her art and music. Besides everyday activities and their little excitements, there’s also an entertainment to benefit the children’s hospital where Col Chase shares his little stories and Miss Howard plays one of her improvs; and then Miss Howard decides to hold a little exhibition of her sketches—and all at Wentworth are expected to attend!
Entertaining and humorous, Benson, as always, gives us a variety of amusing characters (most of them given to exaggeration) and situations—whether it is Mrs Bliss who avails not only all the treatments at the spa but every little comfort but professes to do only for her husband, while going all out to convince all others of the powers of the Mind; not above manipulating situations to make her point; or the Col, who presents his achievements on the cycle or on his walks as many times better than what that ‘faulty’ pedometer records or who supplies ‘instant’ answers to crossword clues others are stuck on having worked them out before; or even Miss Howard who practices her improvs assiduously even though surreptitiously, or might just have exaggerated the nature of her family home.
There are plenty of laughs all through, and also plenty of surprises, including one at the end I didn’t see coming. Both the major ‘events’—the benefit for the hospital and Miss Howard’s exhibition—bring their fair share of these and I enjoyed them very much.
But, I also did feel that many of the characters and situations were rather too similar to Benson’s Mapp and Lucia books—Lady Appledore and Miss Jobson for instance being much like Lady Ambermere and the mousy Mis Lyall from the latter or Col Chase seeming a combination of Major Benjy and Captain Puffin, or Miss Howard’s improvs and Lucia’s Moonlight Sonata. Wodehouse too, does this, but it seems to work a little more successfully in his books than here where the similarities do take away some of one’s enjoyment. (I also found myself a little lost in the chapter focused on the characters’ bridge game, which I really know nothing about).
Nonetheless, this was a fun read, and perhaps best enjoyed if not read too close to the Mapp and Lucia books (which I revisited a couple of years ago).
3.5 stars
Their guests include a range of eccentrics—from Mrs Bliss who claims to believe only in the power of the Mind to cure herself and others, to Mr Kemp whose ‘profession’ is invalidism and who treats his poor daughter Florence like little more than his attendant with her having no life of her own; and Mrs Holders and Mr Bullingdon, genuinely there for the cure. Besides these temporary visitors, there are the more permanent residents, including a retired Indian army officer, Col Chase who considers himself (and is likewise treated) as the most important resident, showing off much of the time his physical prowess—on his cycle or on foot, his pedometer the ‘proof’ of his achievements; and Miss Alice Howard, a reasonably well-off spinster, with many talents from improvs on the piano to sketching.
Life at Bolton for the ‘patients’ consists of treatment at the baths, and massages and other times spent with the crossword or bridge; while Col Chase keeps busy with his walks and exercise, and Miss Howard with her art and music. Besides everyday activities and their little excitements, there’s also an entertainment to benefit the children’s hospital where Col Chase shares his little stories and Miss Howard plays one of her improvs; and then Miss Howard decides to hold a little exhibition of her sketches—and all at Wentworth are expected to attend!
Entertaining and humorous, Benson, as always, gives us a variety of amusing characters (most of them given to exaggeration) and situations—whether it is Mrs Bliss who avails not only all the treatments at the spa but every little comfort but professes to do only for her husband, while going all out to convince all others of the powers of the Mind; not above manipulating situations to make her point; or the Col, who presents his achievements on the cycle or on his walks as many times better than what that ‘faulty’ pedometer records or who supplies ‘instant’ answers to crossword clues others are stuck on having worked them out before; or even Miss Howard who practices her improvs assiduously even though surreptitiously, or might just have exaggerated the nature of her family home.
There are plenty of laughs all through, and also plenty of surprises, including one at the end I didn’t see coming. Both the major ‘events’—the benefit for the hospital and Miss Howard’s exhibition—bring their fair share of these and I enjoyed them very much.
But, I also did feel that many of the characters and situations were rather too similar to Benson’s Mapp and Lucia books—Lady Appledore and Miss Jobson for instance being much like Lady Ambermere and the mousy Mis Lyall from the latter or Col Chase seeming a combination of Major Benjy and Captain Puffin, or Miss Howard’s improvs and Lucia’s Moonlight Sonata. Wodehouse too, does this, but it seems to work a little more successfully in his books than here where the similarities do take away some of one’s enjoyment. (I also found myself a little lost in the chapter focused on the characters’ bridge game, which I really know nothing about).
Nonetheless, this was a fun read, and perhaps best enjoyed if not read too close to the Mapp and Lucia books (which I revisited a couple of years ago).
3.5 stars
October 21, 2010
"Bolton Spa is infamous for two things: the nauseating quality of its brine and the parsimony of its boarding houses. Exceptional is the Wentworth. Every summer this luxurious establishment is full of paying guests come to sample the waters, the constant hot meals, the happy family atmosphere. The register reveals a chronicle of acrimony and arthritis. There is Mrs Bliss, limping violently, who proclaims Mind the Omnipotent cure; Mr Kemp, a raving hypochondriac, persecuting his beleaguered daughter Florence; Miss Alice Howard, horrendously extemporising on the pianoforte; and, lord of all, Col. Chase (Indian Army, ret'd) -- at the top of his form as boor, cyclist and enraged grump. Their battles are fought with pedometer, walking stick and paintbrush; at the bridge table, the town concert, at afternoon tea. Their triumphs, unforgettably and hilariously recorded here, will be relished throughout the land for years to come.
Paying Guests -- out of print since the '30s -- is considered one of the finest examples of E.F. Benson's work, ranking with the very best of P.G. Wodehouse.
~~from the back cover
Very understated British humour. Mapp & Lucia is still my favorite, but this one is quite good as well.
Paying Guests -- out of print since the '30s -- is considered one of the finest examples of E.F. Benson's work, ranking with the very best of P.G. Wodehouse.
~~from the back cover
Very understated British humour. Mapp & Lucia is still my favorite, but this one is quite good as well.
January 20, 2015
What happens to social satire when time and change erase the very characters being satirized? In this case, the humor remains. A number of people stay at an upscale boarding house at an English health resort. The main characters include a self-important retired colonel, a hypochondriac parasite and his put-upon daughter, the devotee of a religion that believes in Mind above all things, and a middle aged spinster with an interest in the arts. Benson's gentle touch leaves them all happier in the end than, perhaps, they deserve, but only after they've been through some embarrassment and emotional turmoil.
September 15, 2020
2.5 * A fine book for passing the time. Funny and light. Don't let my lowish rating fool you, sometimes a book that helps relax and entertain is exactly what I'm in desperate need of.Not everything needs to be deep and profound to be good. E. F. Benson is an author whose books I will always be interested in reading.
September 11, 2019
E. F. Benson was a prolific writer, publishing his first (very successful) novel in 1893 and keeping up an incredible pace until his death in 1940. He's best know for his "Lucia" books and for his paranormal short stories, but he wrote many novels and I think this is one of his best.
In 1929, there was no AirBNB, but there were plenty of "guest houses" where the moderately well-to-do could enjoy a short vacation or settle in for a longer stay. Wentworth is located in Bolton Spa, where the allegedly beneficial waters attract invalids hoping to improve their health. It's debatable that they'll be helped by either drinking the briny sulfur water or soaking in it, but all of them enjoy the attention and the opportunity to compare illnesses with fellow sufferers.
But the story revolves around two guests who are neither invalids nor birds of passage. Both Colonel Chase (Ret.) and Miss Alice Howard are in rude good health. They have no need of medical care, but they need a comfortable home and a captive audience. At Wentworth, they get both.
Benson's comedies are delightful because he had a genius for creating shallow, selfish, self-absorbed characters and pitting them against each other. Both Miss Howard and Colonel Chase are pathetic, but we are relieved of any need to feel sorry for them. When they're at each other's throats, we can watch and enjoy with no more sense of shame than if we were watching two rattlesnakes fight to the death.
This is a hilarious, bitchy book. It's Benson at his best and he was very good indeed. Thank God for e-publishing which is making these wonderful old books available again.
In 1929, there was no AirBNB, but there were plenty of "guest houses" where the moderately well-to-do could enjoy a short vacation or settle in for a longer stay. Wentworth is located in Bolton Spa, where the allegedly beneficial waters attract invalids hoping to improve their health. It's debatable that they'll be helped by either drinking the briny sulfur water or soaking in it, but all of them enjoy the attention and the opportunity to compare illnesses with fellow sufferers.
But the story revolves around two guests who are neither invalids nor birds of passage. Both Colonel Chase (Ret.) and Miss Alice Howard are in rude good health. They have no need of medical care, but they need a comfortable home and a captive audience. At Wentworth, they get both.
Benson's comedies are delightful because he had a genius for creating shallow, selfish, self-absorbed characters and pitting them against each other. Both Miss Howard and Colonel Chase are pathetic, but we are relieved of any need to feel sorry for them. When they're at each other's throats, we can watch and enjoy with no more sense of shame than if we were watching two rattlesnakes fight to the death.
This is a hilarious, bitchy book. It's Benson at his best and he was very good indeed. Thank God for e-publishing which is making these wonderful old books available again.
October 21, 2021
Comedy is nothing without pathos and even a quick reading shows that whilst these characters are indeed hilarious in both good and bad ways its the underlying sadness in the characters that make it a great read.
February 20, 2013
A typical Bensonian romp complete with outrageously unlikeable characters, in spite of whom you can't wait to read on. If you are a Lucia fan, do read this!
September 15, 2017
Such fun! Not quite as tart as Mapp and Lucia but nevertheless an entertaining account of the inhabitants of Wentworth, a superior boarding house in a provincial spa town.
The foibles and failings of a variety of characters- a choleric colonel, a hypochondriac, some gushing spinsters among them - are cleverly depicted.
The pretensions of the middle classes and minor aristocracy are firmly dealt with and a few shots are aimed at Christian Science, art criticism and musical snobbery.
A good light read.
The foibles and failings of a variety of characters- a choleric colonel, a hypochondriac, some gushing spinsters among them - are cleverly depicted.
The pretensions of the middle classes and minor aristocracy are firmly dealt with and a few shots are aimed at Christian Science, art criticism and musical snobbery.
A good light read.
Read
October 27, 2014I am not reading this book and cannot find out how to delete it from my list.
January 4, 2020
This took a long time for me to complete. Some passages in novels bog me down and I cannot get through three paragraphs without losing interest. This isn't one of E.F. Benson's best; the point of attracting my fascination is the introduction of a romance between two guests, and the end is mean-spirited. The mean-spiritedness hopscotches from beginning to end, but it's clunky and awkward, and the capriciousness of some characters is unsupported by established traits.
August 29, 2024
The author has a compelling body of work. Though long dead, and being from an era with which few of us could identify, I have enjoyed some of his books, but not really this one. It has some interesting characters but I did not really like any of them. Their problems are similar to those many of us experience today but sustain a hollow effect for the reader.
May 5, 2020
I found this book delightful; nearly as enjoyable as the "Mapp and Lucia" books, but not quite. For sure, there are a number of similar characters and situations. This helps pick up the slack in between "Lucia" readings!
May 29, 2017
I read this as a prototype for the Mapp and Lucia series. Miss Howard was obviously an early version of Lucia and most of the other characters were recognisable as well.
May 13, 2019
Mr Benson, you did it again - minimal plot, maximal enjoyment.
July 29, 2020
If you like the PG Wodehouse Bertie and Jeeves books, you’ll probably like this one, too.
December 2, 2022
Full review on my book blog.
For fans of P.G. Wodehouse, comedies of manners and Fawlty Towers, E.F. Benson’s 1929 novel is a delight.
“Mind was often inscrutable in its workings: the aspirations of those who trusted it were always fulfilled, but mortal sense could never accurately predict the manner of it.”
The widowed sisters, the optimistic Mrs Oxney (Margaret) and the pessimistic Mrs Bertram (Amy), run the Wentworth guesthouse in the spa town of Bolton Spa, surrounded by extensive grounds. They have a balancing act to keep their permanent residents Colonel Chase and Miss Alice Howard happy.
Though they are fully booked until Christmas, they are worried about a coal strike affecting trains and their heating bill. So little has changed in the last 93 years!
The Colonel is a frightful bore, telling everyone daily about how far he has walked and cycled, all recorded in his notebook after consulting his pedometer. His tall tales about his service in India are met with amusement by the more cynical younger guests. In one incident, he is caught out in the evening when the ladies are filling in the crossword; the young Tim Bullingdon secretly shows the Colonel’s already completed newspaper to Mrs Holders and pretends himself to supply the correct answers to several clues.
The next disruptive influence is the arrival of Mrs Bliss, who has a strong religious conviction that sounds suspiciously like the beliefs of Christian Scientists, though it is never named. This infuriates the hypochondriac Mr Kemp, who usually enjoys complaining about his arthritis to whoever will listen.
Chapter two concludes with a rather unreasonably detailed report on a game of bridge. Most of the humour and action revolves around a young woman who has been ‘left on the shelf’, Alice Howard. She spends most of her days painting and sketching as well as playing well-rehearsed ‘improvisations’ on the piano. The guesthouse owners are careful to allow her to ‘entertain’ the guests, but their praise goes to her head. It is clear from the reactions of the irreverent Tim Bullingdon and Mrs Holders that she is nowhere near as accomplished as she has been led to believe.
When a concert is organised in aid of the local children’s home, Alice is persuaded to play the piano and Colonel Close decides to tell the stories with which he often ‘entertains’ the guesthouse residents. Naturally, various elements come together to ensure nothing goes as planned.
For fans of P.G. Wodehouse, comedies of manners and Fawlty Towers, E.F. Benson’s 1929 novel is a delight.
“Mind was often inscrutable in its workings: the aspirations of those who trusted it were always fulfilled, but mortal sense could never accurately predict the manner of it.”
The widowed sisters, the optimistic Mrs Oxney (Margaret) and the pessimistic Mrs Bertram (Amy), run the Wentworth guesthouse in the spa town of Bolton Spa, surrounded by extensive grounds. They have a balancing act to keep their permanent residents Colonel Chase and Miss Alice Howard happy.
Though they are fully booked until Christmas, they are worried about a coal strike affecting trains and their heating bill. So little has changed in the last 93 years!
The Colonel is a frightful bore, telling everyone daily about how far he has walked and cycled, all recorded in his notebook after consulting his pedometer. His tall tales about his service in India are met with amusement by the more cynical younger guests. In one incident, he is caught out in the evening when the ladies are filling in the crossword; the young Tim Bullingdon secretly shows the Colonel’s already completed newspaper to Mrs Holders and pretends himself to supply the correct answers to several clues.
The next disruptive influence is the arrival of Mrs Bliss, who has a strong religious conviction that sounds suspiciously like the beliefs of Christian Scientists, though it is never named. This infuriates the hypochondriac Mr Kemp, who usually enjoys complaining about his arthritis to whoever will listen.
Chapter two concludes with a rather unreasonably detailed report on a game of bridge. Most of the humour and action revolves around a young woman who has been ‘left on the shelf’, Alice Howard. She spends most of her days painting and sketching as well as playing well-rehearsed ‘improvisations’ on the piano. The guesthouse owners are careful to allow her to ‘entertain’ the guests, but their praise goes to her head. It is clear from the reactions of the irreverent Tim Bullingdon and Mrs Holders that she is nowhere near as accomplished as she has been led to believe.
When a concert is organised in aid of the local children’s home, Alice is persuaded to play the piano and Colonel Close decides to tell the stories with which he often ‘entertains’ the guesthouse residents. Naturally, various elements come together to ensure nothing goes as planned.
March 1, 2016
Flashes of Benson's brilliant eye for the peculiarities and vanities of ordinary people, but he could have done with a good editor for this work. It's not up to his usual structural standard and is full of too much rambling minutiae about each character which becomes as annoying as if you were a fellow paying guest yourself and stuck with them each breakfast and dinner time. There are some fascinating elements though: two women falling in love and giving two fingers to a pompous male, being the most obvious; pompous male learning nothing from his experience. However, if you've finished the Mapp and Lucia stories and want to try something else, go for Mrs Ames and not this.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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October 21, 2012Bolton Spa lacks the inimitable Lucia, but the remarkable Col. Chase (Indian Army, ret'd) makes up for it.
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June 27, 2010Paying Guests by E. F. Benson (1984)
August 9, 2011
I just can't resist British wit. Loved it.
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August 13, 2012Not the same book I had in mind - however, E. F. Benson is quite an entertaining author. Will keep looking for the other book.
November 15, 2014
Definitely light-hearted. Liked the old-fashioned style of writing and there were several words I had to look up because they just aren't used anymore.
June 24, 2015
Nothing to say. Pure Joy!!
April 12, 2017
Not in the mood to enjoy it.
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