Barbara Pym

Barbara Mary Crampton Pym (June 2, 1913 – January 11, 1980) was an English novelist.

Pym was born in Oswestry, Shropshire. After studying English at St Hilda's College, Oxford, she served in the Women's Royal Naval Service during World War II. Her literary career is noteworthy because of the long hiatus between 1963 and 1977, when, despite early success and continuing popularity, she was unable to find a publisher for her richly comic novels.

The turning point for Pym came with a famous article in the Times Literary Supplement in which two prominent names, Lord David Cecil and Philip Larkin, nominated her as the most underrated writer of the century. Her comeback novel, Quartet in Autumn, was nominated for the Booker Prize.

Pym worked at the African Institute in London for some years, and played a large part in the editing of its scholarly journal, Africa, hence the frequency with which anthropologists crop up in her novels. She never married, despite several close relationships with men, notably Henry Harvey, a fellow Oxford student, and the future politician, Julian Amery. After her retirement, she shared a cottage at Finstock in Oxfordshire with her younger sister, Hilary, who continued to live there until her death in February 2005.

Barbara Pym died of breast cancer, aged 66. The sisters are buried in Finstock churchyard.

Her novels include:

• Some Tame Gazelle (1950) ISBN 1-55921-264-0
• Excellent Women (1952) ISBN 0-452-26730-7
• Jane and Prudence (1953) ISBN 1-55921-226-8
• Less than Angels (1955) ISBN 1-55921-388-4
• A Glass of Blessings (1958) ISBN 1-55921-353-1
• No Fond Return Of Love (1961) ISBN 1-55921-306-X
• Quartet in Autumn (1977)
• The Sweet Dove Died (1978) ISBN 1-55921-301-9
• A Few Green Leaves (1980) ISBN 1-55921-228-4
• Crampton Hodnet (completed circa 1940, published 1985) ISBN 1-55921-243-8
• An Unsuitable Attachment (written 1963; published posthumously, 1982)
• An Academic Question (written 1970-72; published 1986)

Several strong themes link the works in the Pym "canon", which are more notable for their style and characterisation than for their plots. A superficial reading gives the impression that they are sketches of village or suburban life, with excessive significance being attached to social activities connected with the church (in particular its Anglo-Catholic incarnation). However, the dialogue is often deeply ironic, and a tragic undercurrent runs through some of the later novels, especially Quartet in Autumn and The Sweet Dove Died.

Her diaries were also published posthumously, under the title, A Very Private Eye (1985) ISBN 0-394-73106-9

External links

• The Barbara Pym Society based at St Hilda's College, Oxford.