Benson, E(dward) F(rederic) (1867-1940)

English writer. He specialized in novels gently satirizing the foibles of upper-middle-class society, and wrote a series of books featuring the formidable female antagonists Mapp and Lucia, including Mapp and Lucia (1931). He was a son of Edward White Benson.

Benson studied at Cambridge. From 1892 to 1895 he was engaged in archaeological investigations in Athens, Greece. In 1893 he published his first novel, Dodo, a story of society life, which was a best-seller.

He continued to write much light fiction, including Vintage (1898), The House of Defence (1907), The Osbornes (1910), Dodo the Second (1914), Dodo Wonders (1921), and Paying Guests (1929), and two successful plays, Aunt Jeannie (1902) and Dinner for Eight (1915).

Later in life he turned to biography, but wrote best of his own life and times in the two volumes of memoirs As We Are (1932) and As We Were (1934).