‘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When Barbara Pym died in 1980 she left a considerable amount of unpublished material.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 Voice’, Pym’s only written comment on her writing career.
In CIVIL TO STRANGERS the lives of a young couple, Cassandra Marsh-Gibbon and her self-absorbed writer husband Adam, are thrown into upheaval when a mysterious Hungarian arrives in their village.
When Barbara Pym died in 1980 she left a considerable amount of unpublished material.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 Voice’, Pym’s only written comment on her writing career.
In CIVIL TO STRANGERS the lives of a young couple, Cassandra Marsh-Gibbon and her self-absorbed writer husband Adam, are thrown into upheaval when a mysterious Hungarian arrives in their village.
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Reviews
A sublime social comedy . . . It exists inside the Pym Eden of safety, silliness and a kind of subdued hilarity. Look out for one of her best curates - the starchy, spinster-dodging Mr Paladin - and a typically deliciously insensitive vicar
Brilliant, hilarious, poignant and so very, very English
Barbara Pym is the rarest of treasures; she reminds us of the heartbreaking silliness of everyday life
I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym
I'd sooner read a new Barbara Pym than a new Jane Austen
