welcome to the friends of tilling

The Friends of Tilling was formed by Darren Reynolds and Jonathan Dunlop in order to organise an annual Gathering, a tradition started in 1982 by the Tilling Society. The Gatherings bring together all Mapp & Lucia devotees to revel in the world of Tilling and remember the life of its creator E F Benson. We are delighted to have Gyles Brandreth as our president and as vice president the writer and novelist Sir Alexander McCall Smith CBE. 

The Tilling Shop is open for memberships, renewals and book sales. We will add other products soon, in the meantime please email us with any requirements.

 Tilling Tales

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of E F Benson's birth in 2017, we published Tilling Tales - a collection of stories featured at recent Gatherings, written by Tom Holt, Elizabeth French and Darren Reynolds.

The 2024 gathering

This year’s Gathering will take place on Saturday 7th September in Rye. We will be celebrating our twentieth anniversary. It will consist of a walk to Benson’s grave at Rye Cemetery in the morning, a luncheon with a Benson reading at The Mermaid Inn and then a hitum dinner in the evening. It will include the annual Mapp and Lucia quiz, again at The Mermaid Inn. Booking will open in early July.

The Tilling Gazette

The next edition of our journal, The Tilling Gazette is currently being finalised and will be sent to members in March.

Sir alexander mccall smith

Molto congartulations to our vice president Alexander McCall Smith on being appointed a Knight Bachelor by HM The King in the New Year’s honours list, given for services to literaure, academia and to charity.