Paying Guests Author:E. F. Benson 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 arth... more »ritis. 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, unforgettable and hilariously recorded here, will be relished throughout the land for years to come.« less
Depiction of British upperclass at a spa resort in the 1920's. As in Benson's Lucia series, the characters interact clueless of their own faults and the results are often hilarious.
E.F. Benson (1867-1940) is one of the great English humorists. Novelist, essayist, and biographer, he published almost eighty books, including fifty works of fiction. He is perhaps most famous for the Lucia series... [publisher]