**Darkly funny and full of stubborn optimism, Quartet in Autumn is a classic. Showing Barbara Pym at her very best, it portrays the strange and wonderful quirks of everyday life.‘Spectacular’ –** The Sunday Times‘Quartet in Autumn is immeasurably her finest work of fiction’ – Evening Standard‘Barbara Pym has a sharp eye for the exact nuances of social behaviour’ – The TimesIn 1970s...

‘Barbara Pym is one of my most favourite novelists. Few other writers have given me more laughter and more pleasure.' Jilly CooperBetween the amorous antique dealer Humphrey and his good-looking nephew James glides the magnificent Leonora, delicate as porcelain, cool as ice. Can she keep James in her thrall? Or will he be taken from her by a lover, like Phoebe . . . or Ned, the wicked American?'A highly distinctive and - ultimately - charitable novel' F...

INTRODUCED BY ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH'I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym' RICHARD OSMANMildred Lathbury is one of those excellent women who are often taken for granted. She is a godsend, 'capable of dealing with most of the stock situations or even the great moments of life - birth, marriage, death, the successful jumble sale, the garden fête spoilt by bad weather'. Her glamorous new neighbours, the Napiers, seem to be facing a marital crisis. On...

BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHORINTRODUCED BY JILLY COOPER'I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym' RICHARD OSMAN'I devoured all her books, but Jane and Prudence remains my favourite' JILLY COOPER'Barbara Pym is the rarest of treasures; she reminds us of the heartbreaking silliness of everyday life' ANNE TYLERIf Jane Cleveland and Prudence Bates seem ...

Excellent Women is probably the most famous of Barbara Pym's novels. The acclaim a few years ago for this early comic novel, which was hailed by Lord David Cecil as one of 'the finest examples of high comedy to have appeared in England during the past seventy-five years,' helped launch the rediscovery of the author's entire work. Mildred Lathbury is a clergyman's daughter and a spinster in the England of the 1950s, one of those 'excellent women' who tend to get involved in other p...

‘Barbara Pym is one of my most favourite novelists. Few other writers have given me more laughter and more pleasure’ - Jilly Cooper, author of The Rutshire Chronicles series‘I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym’ - Richard Osman, author of The Thrusday Murder ClubBarbara Pym was an incomparable chronicler of ordinary, quiet lives. With warmth, humour, precision and great vividness, she gave her best characters an independent life we recogn...

INTRODUCED BY MAVIS CHEEK'I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym' Richard Osman'She is the rarest of treasures; she reminds us of the heartbreaking silliness of everyday life' Anne TylerTogether yet alone, the Misses Bede occupy the central crossroads of parish life. Harriet, plump, elegant and jolly, likes nothing better than to make a fuss of new curates, secure in the knowledge that Count Ricardo Bianco will propose to he...

INTRODUCED BY LOUIS DE BERNIERES'I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym' RICHARD OSMAN'I'd sooner read a new Barbara Pym than a new Jane Austen' PHILIP LARKINFormidable Miss Doggett fills her life by giving tea parties for young academics and acting as watchdog for the morals of North Oxford. Anthea, her great-niece, is in love with a dashing undergraduate with political ambitions. Of this, Miss Doggett thoroughly approves. ...

INTRODUCED BY SALLEY VICKERS'I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym' RICHARD OSMAN'She is the rarest of treasures; she reminds us of the heart-breaking silliness of everyday life' ANNE TYLERCatherine Oliphant is a writer and lives with handsome anthropologist Tom Mallow. Their relationship runs into trouble when he begins a romance with student Deirdre Swann, so Catherine turns her attention...

'I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym' Richard Osman‘Barbara Pym is one of my most favourite novelists. Few other writers have given me more laughter and more pleasure.' Jilly Cooper‘The day comes in the life of every single man living alone when he must give a dinner party.’The parish of St Basil, on the fringes of North Kensington, is all of a flutter due to the arrival of Rupert Stonebird, a most eligible bachelor, in t...

BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHORWITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY CLARE CHAMBERS'I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym' RICHARD OSMAN'My favourite writer . . . I pick up her books with joy, as though I were meeting an old, dear friend' JILLY COOPER'The subtlest of her books . . . the sparkle on first acquaintance has been succeeded by the deeper brilliance of established art' PHILI...

Mujeres excelentes está considerada una de las mejores novelas de Barbara Pym. La autora traza un espléndido retrato sobre la vida cotidiana de sus personajes.Mildred Lathbury, la narradora, es una mujer soltera que vive en Londres y ocupa su tiempo en diversas tareas en la parroquia, en tomar el té con las amigas, en obras de caridad y en satisfacer las necesidades de los demás. Es inteligente y observadora, pero también tímida e insegura, en parte debido a su sol...