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Barbara Pym (1913-1980) was born in Oswestry, Shropshire. She was educated at Huyton College, Liverpool, and St Hilda's College, Oxford, where she gained an Honours Degree in English Language and Literature. From 1958-1974, she worked as an editorial secretary at the International African Institute. Her first novel, Some Tame Gazelle, was published in 1950, and was followed by Excellent Women (1952), Jane and Prudence (1953), Less than Angels (1955), A Glass of Blessings (1958) and No Fond Return of Love (1961). During the sixties and early seventies her writing suffered a partial eclipse and, discouraged, she concentrated on her work for the Institute, from which she retired in 1974 to live in Oxfordshire. A renaissance in her fortunes came in 1977, when both Philip Larkin and Lord David Cecil chose her as one of the most underrated novelists of the century. With astonishing speed, she emerged, after sixteen years of obscurity, to almost instant fame and recognition. Quartet in Autumn was published in 1977 and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. The Sweet Dove Died followed in 1978, and A Few Green Leaves was published posthumously. Barbara Pym died in January 1980.Barbara Pym is the rarest of treasures
- Anne Tyler,
<p>I'd sooner read a new Barbara Pym than a new Jane Austen . . . The subtlest of her books - the sparkle on first acquaintance has been succeeded by the deeper brilliance of established art</p>
- Philip Larkin,
I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym
- Richard Osman,
[Pym] makes me smile, laugh out loud, consider my own foibles and fantasies, and above all, suffer real regret when I reach the final page. Of how many authors can you honestly say that?
- Mavis Cheek,
There is a thrill of humanity through all her work
- Shirley Hazzard,
My favourite writer . . . I pick up her books with joy, as though I were meeting an old, dear friend who comforts me, extends my vision and makes me roar with laughter
- Jilly Cooper,
A modern Jane Austen
- Alexander McCall Smith,
Another instalment in America's exposure to the Pyro revival, which began in England in 1976 and happily arrived here in 1978 . . . Essential reading for Pym's growing readership on this side of the Atlantic
Kirkus Reviews