Holt is ingenious in his attempts to cast himself back into the twisted mind of EF Benson. Throughout the book he nearly achieves the impossible, for alas no modern author could really be as perfect as Benson. Nevertheless this book (and TRIUMPHANT) are worthy successors to the original six and are not bad in their own right, though perhaps giving Georgie Pillson such prominence wasn't the best idea he had. LUCIA IN WARTIME might well have been called GEORGIE IN WARTIME for our little hero, one of the most effeminate husbands in all literature, here achieves mass popularity nearly on the scale of his opera singing idol Olga Bracely, by becoming a cook. His radio broadcasts sweep the nation and cheer up a populace devastated by German bombing and grimly stuck with a harshly limited menu, for Georgie has somehow learned to disguise everything as something else so that you too can serve Lobster a la Riseholme (Benson's immortal invention) at a dinner party for eight even if you have only a cup of rolled oats and perhaps a carrot.
Lucia is thereby thrust somewhat in the shadow of things, and even her arch rival Elizabeth Mapp-Flynt attains a momentary upper hand when she intercepts Lucia's invitation from Windsor Castle and goes in Lucia's place, claiming that Lucia will be unable to attend. Maybe TRIUMPHANT is a bit better that WARTIME, for TRIUMPHANT has the hilarious mystery of Mapp's lineage to make a throughline in it, whereas WARTIME just goes amiably along from one "almost working" plot to another. Nevertheless all the old gang are here, nearly recognizable--quaint Irene, Diva Plaistow, the Wyses, Benjy and Foljambe. Long live Lucia!