??We can begin with a kiss?? though this will not turn out to be a love story?? at least not a love story of anything like the usual kind.??

So begins A Very Queer Family Indeed?? which introduces us to the extraordinary Benson family. Edward White Benson became Archbishop of Canterbury at the height of Queen Victoria??s reign?? while his wife?? Mary?? was renowned for her wit and charm?the prime minister once wondered whether she was ??the cleverest woman in England or in Europe.?? The couple??s six precocious children included E. F. Benson?? celebrated creator of the Mapp and Lucia novels?? and Margaret Benson?? the first published female Egyptologist.

What interests Simon Goldhill most??