Mapton on Sea: Laughter, Love, and Mayhem at the British Seaside

Maxfield’s (The Army of Righteous Deliverance) opening installment in her “Mapton on Sea” series, first published in 2015 and now available in audio, introduces Stella, a successful artist living in London who is estranged from her eccentric and unpleasant grandmother Gina. However, when Gina is injured in a fall, Stella is called upon to care for her. She reluctantly heads for Mapton on Sea, a foundering seaside town with little to offer. Stella hopes that her time with Gina will be brief—Gina’s dog Bing hates her, and Gina herself is just as cantankerous as ever. But then Stella begins to see another side of Mapton on Sea. She meets hilarious pensioners at Rick’s Café on the beach and is captivated by their antics, including mobility-scooter racing by the light of the full moon. Before she knows it, Stella is tentatively exploring a new romance and learning more about herself and her grandmother than she ever thought possible. Narrator Allison Larkin brings the story to life, giving voice to Maxfield’s unique and entertaining characters with a variety of voices and accents.