One of her very best - comic, heartrending, brave; in short, like life itself' Shirley Hazzard
Dulcie Mainwearing is always helping others, but never looks out for herself - especially in the realm of love. Her friend Viola is besotted by the alluring Dr Aylwin Forbes, so surely it isn t prying if Dulcie helps things along?
Aylwin, however, is smitten by Dulcie s pretty young niece. And perhaps Dulcie herself, however ridiculous it may be, is falling, just a little, for Aylwin. Once life's little humiliations are played out, maybe love will be returned, and fondly, after all...
I'd sooner read a new Barbara Pym than a new Jane Austen - Philip Larkin
One of her very best - comic, heartrending, brave; in short, like life itself - Shirley Hazzard
No novelist brings more telling observation or more gentle pleasure - Jilly Cooper
A splendid humorous writer - John Betjeman
I'd sooner read a new Barbara Pym than a new Jane Austen - Philip Larkin
One of her very best - comic, heartrending, brave; in short, like life itself - Shirley Hazzard
No novelist brings more telling observation or more gentle pleasure - Jilly Cooper
A splendid humorous writer - John Betjeman
Barbara Pym (1913-80) was born in Shropshire and educated at St Hilda's College, Oxford. When in 1977 the TLS asked critics to name the most underrated authors of the past 75 years, only one was named twice (by Philip Larkin and Lord David Cecil): Barbara Pym. Her novels are characterised by what Anne Tyler has called 'the heartbreaking silliness of everyday life'.
Author Location: deceased
No Fond Return of Love; Excellent Women; Some Tame Gazelle; A Glass of Blessings