Tilling (Sussex) and the spring of 1931, in which Emmeline Lucas ("Lucia") and Elizabeth Mapp clashed for the first time, "Lucia's Progress" (1935) and "Trouble for Lucia" (1939). The novelist Susan Leg, the subject of "Secret Lives" (1932), re-appeared in "Trouble for Lucia". The first Lucia book, "Queen Lucia", was published in 1920. It was followed in 1927 by "Lucia in London". Benson's "The Freaks of Mayfair" (1916) provided the genesis of some of the characters of Tilling. Specifically, "Aunt Georgie", a bachelor with a penchant for embroidery, provided the model for George Pillson, who, as with Lucia, with whom he entered
Thomas Tilling Railway; and London and North Eastern Railway. During the 1920s, the "Big Four" divested themselves of much of the operations of their bus networks by transferring their interests to Tilling and BET in exchange for shares. The Tilling family's association with the company ended in 1929 with the death of Richard Tilling. In 1931, Thomas Tilling Ltd acquired the Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company, along with the Eastern Counties Omnibus Company, whose bus construction activities were renamed the Eastern Coach Works Ltd (ECW) in 1936. In 1933, the new London Passenger Transport Board compulsorily acquired the 328 buses that made