Barbara Pym

Barbara Pym is one of my most favourite novelists. Few other writers have given me more laughter and more pleasure. - Jilly Cooper I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym. - Richard Osman "Could one write a book based on one's diaries over thirty years? I certainly have enough material," wrote Barbara Pym. This book, selected from the diaries, notebooks,...

Owing a debt to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Barbara Pym's An Unsuitable Attachment is an elegant and witty comedy of manners from an acclaimed author who Philip Larkin called 'the most underrated novelist of the century'. I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym - Richard Osman, author of The Thursday Murder Club The day comes in the life of...

Cover design by Orla Kiely Mildred Lathbury is one of those excellent women who is often taken for granted. She is a godsend, capable of dealing with most of the stock situations of life - birth, marriage, death, the successful jumble sales, the garden fete spoilt by bad weather. As such, though, she often gets herself embroiled in other people’s...

INTRODUCED BY ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH 'I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym' - RICHARD OSMAN Mildred Lathbury is one of those excellent women who are often taken for granted. She is a godsend, 'capable of dealing with most of the stock situations or even the great moments of life - birth, marriage, death, the successful jumble sale, the garden fete...

INTRODUCED BY MAVIS CHEEK I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym - Richard Osman She is the rarest of treasures; she reminds us of the heartbreaking silliness of everyday life - Anne Tyler Together yet alone, the Misses Bede occupy the central crossroads of parish life. Harriet, plump, elegant and jolly, likes nothing better than to make a fuss of...

INTRODUCED BY LOUIS DE BERNIERES 'I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym' — RICHARD OSMAN 'I'd sooner read a new Barbara Pym than a new Jane Austen' — PHILIP LARKIN Crampton Hodnet features the formidable Miss Doggett, who fills her life by hosting tea parties for young academics and acting as a watchdog for the morals of North Oxford. Anthea,...

By the New York Times Bestselling Author Introduced by Jilly Cooper 'I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym' - Richard Osman 'I devoured all her books, but Jane and Prudence remains my favourite' - Jilly Cooper 'Barbara Pym is the rarest of treasures; she reminds us of the heartbreaking silliness of everyday life' - Anne Tyler If Jane Cleveland and...

INTRODUCED BY SALLEY VICKERS 'I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym' — RICHARD OSMAN 'She is the rarest of treasures; she reminds us of the heart-breaking silliness of everyday life' — ANNE TYLER Less Than Angels introduces us to Catherine Oliphant, a writer who lives with the handsome anthropologist Tom Mallow. Their relationship encounters trouble when Tom begins a romance...

INTRODUCED BY KATE SAUNDERS 'I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym' RICHARD OSMAN 'My favourite writer . . . I pick up her books with joy' JILLY COOPER 'Beneath the gentle surfaces of her novels is a slow-building comedy, salt wit in a saline drip' NEW YORK TIMES In a provincial university town, Caro Grimstone, a dissatisfied faculty wife, becomes...

By the New York Times Bestselling Author With a New Introduction by Clare Chambers 'I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym' - Richard Osman 'My favourite writer... I pick up her books with joy, as though I were meeting an old, dear friend' - Jilly Cooper 'The subtlest of her books... the sparkle on first acquaintance has been succeeded by...

INTRODUCED BY HAZEL HOLT 'I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym' — Richard Osman 'I'd sooner read a new Barbara Pym than a new Jane Austen' — Philip Larkin When Barbara Pym died in 1980, she left a considerable amount of unpublished material. This volume contains an early novel, Civil to Strangers, three novellas and an autobiographical essay, 'Finding a...