Barbara Pym ----Anyone?

Ooh yes! Love her writing.

Oh yes! Love Barbara Pym. A great pity that people around her so discouraged her that she didn’t write more than she did.

And I have just - for the second time- chortled my way through Angela Thirkell’s Pomfret Towers. 😀

I’m trying Ursula Bloom but she doesn’t have quite the same touch for me.

I've never read any of her books, but I'm making a note to for 2026.

Came late to Pym but have listened to her books released through Audible. She is good.
Incidentally, her finest work "Quartet in Autumn" is only available in Kindle or book form.

I enjoyed Barbara Pyms books. They are more sensitive than Angela Thirkell's. The humour is more subtle and pathos more marked.

"The burden of keeping three people in toilet paper seemed to me rather a heavy one."

"... eating the baked beans in ten minutes or less, quite without dignity."

Who could not admire the author of these gems?

She is wonderful at highlighting, with delicious irony, the dependency men have on worthy women in an age of male supremacy. But very gently done in the tradition of Austen.

I have been meaning to try some Barbara Pym. I love reading stuff from that era. The comments on here have encouraged me to seek her out.

Try 'Some Tame Gazelle' first.

Lovely, gentle novels, I used to love them and could happily read them again now I think.

I loved her books forst time round. Second time around I found her mannered and rather old fashioned and di not enjoy the reread, which really surprised me because I rarely change my view and enjoyment of a writer on second reading.

I picked up 'Jane and Prudence' from the library yesterday. I have read some of hers work before, but cannot remember just now..

Read the lot more than once. I have them all on my kindle.

I have read most of Barbara Pyms books several times over the years and enjoyed them. She has the knack of putting you in the scene and there are no jarring bits, she knows her places well. Of course I love Alan Bennett as you can here in your head the exact sounds of the conversations. For more humour , have you tried some of Deric Longdens books ? If you are owned by a cat you will recognise some of his situations, and his mother is quite a card. They did make a film on tv of one of the books and Thora Hird played his mother and cannot remember if it was an actress or his actual second wife in it too, Something to enjoy and cheer a miserable weather day. I think I shall go to my copy of Tame Gazelle tonight to enjoy Pyms writing again. Happy reading

I discovered Barbara Pym quite late on and have read all her books with delight.
They weren't right for her time somehow. They seemed old fashioned and dull compared to more racy novelists.

I don't think my DM, who read voraciously but followed the reviews, ever read Pym. She didn't like Larkin or Betjeman claiming they were romantics who championed the unpopular.

Mum was the same age as B Pym.

I can see where you are coming from, MOnica. Being mannered and old-fashioned is a major part of
Pym's charm the first time round, and I found it very enjoyable, but I cannot imagine rereading her.

Read Barbara Pym novels ages ago and really enjoyed them, also Angela Thirkell.

Give Dorothy Whipple a try if you like this genre.
The Persephone editions are very handsome.

Dorothy Whipple is a terrific writer.
Pym fans might enjoy the BBC programme entitled 'Miss Pym's Day Out'. It should still be on the BBC iPlayer.

I tend not to buy new books and will put Barbara Pym on my list when I browse charity shops .
I'll look for the other authors which have been suggested .

I enjoyed Barbara Pym and have a collection of her gentle, very perceptive books which I have not re-read for a long time. Incentive to do so now. Angela Thirkell is wittier, but regrettably snobbish; the earlier pre-war books are the best.

I quite like reading about what is now perceived as snobbishness but, back then, was just everyday thinking.
I do enjoy the books written in the 20s/30s/40s. Life was so different.

I recently discovered Dorothy Whipple, apropos of one of these type of threads on GN. I really love reading about the earlier part of the 20th century from the pov of first hand experience. She was also a feminist of her era, that comes across in her writing.

I enjoy Barbara Pym, I think Quartet in Autumn the best. She seems to have been a rather odd woman, always very conscious of herself.

Boz

Came late to Pym but have listened to her books released through Audible. She is good.
Incidentally, her finest work "Quartet in Autumn" is only available in Kindle or book form.

I have Quartet in Autumn, and it is the most sad of her books.