Barbara Pym
Barbara Pym
Barbara Mary Crampton Pymwas an English novelist. In the 1950s she published a series of social comedies, of which the best known are Excellent Womenand A Glass of Blessings. In 1977 her career was revived when the biographer David Cecil and the poet Philip Larkin both nominated her as the most under-rated writer of the century. Her novel Quartet in Autumnwas nominated for the Booker Prize that year, and she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth2 June 1913
novel reader
She had always been an unashamed reader of novels ...
aunt laughing firsts
[The woman] paused and seemed to take a deep breath. 'You see,' she declared. 'I am Tom Mallow's aunt.' Catherine's first instinct was to burst out laughing. She wondered why there was something slightly absurd about aunts; perhaps it was because one thought of them as dear, comfortable creatures, somehow lacking in dignity and prestige.
home funny-things cooking
The small things of life were often so much bigger than the great things . . . the trivial pleasure like cooking, one's home, little poems especially sad ones, solitary walks, funny things seen and overheard.
inspirational-love trying absurd
How absurd and delicious it is to be in love with somebody younger than yourself. Everybody should try it.
would-be consciousness hours
My thoughts went round and round and it occurred to me that if I ever wrote a novel it would be of the 'stream of consciousness' type and deal with an hour in the life of a woman at the sink.
thinking hands dramatic
I was so astonished that I could think of nothing to say, but wondered irrelevantly if I was to be caught with a teapot in my hand on every dramatic occasion.
hurt night missing
Perhaps there can be too much making of cups of tea, I thought, as I watched Miss Statham filling the heavy teapot. Did we really need a cup of tea? I even said as much to Miss Statham and she looked at me with a hurt, almost angry look, 'Do we need tea? she echoed. 'But Miss Lathbury...' She sounded puzzled and distressed and I began to realise that my question had struck at something deep and fundamental. It was the kind of question that starts a landslide in the mind. I mumbled something about making a joke and that of course one needed tea always, at every hour of the day or night.
life-is terrible terrible-things
Life is cruel and we do terrible things to each other.
giving waiting inspire
Perhaps I need some shattering experience to awaken and inspire me, or at least to give me some emotion to recollect in tranquility. But how to get it? Sit here and wait for it or go out and seek it? . . . I expect it will be sit and wait.
smell drink librarian
Of course it's alright for librarians to smell of drink.
heart broken way
There are various ways of mending a broken heart, but perhaps going to a learned conference is one of the more unusual.
book reading hands
I stretched out my hand towards the little bookshelf where I kept cookery and devotional books, the most comfortable bedside reading.
writing imagine wells
I imagine the proverb about too many cooks spoiling the broth can be applied to writing as well as anything else. The poetical or literary broth is better cooked by one person.
giving helping good-things
What a good thing there is no marriage or giving in marriage in the after-life; it will certainly help to smooth things out.