Editing Barbara Pym

{{Short description|English novelist (1913–1980)}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name             = Barbara Pym
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FRSL}}
| image            = 
| alt              = 
| caption          = 
| pseudonym        = 
| birth_name       = Barbara Mary Crampton Pym
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|df=y|1913|6|2}}
| birth_place      = [[Oswestry]], [[Shropshire]], England
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|df=y|1980|1|11|1913|6|2}}
| death_place      = 
| resting_place    = Holy Trinity churchyard, [[Finstock]], [[Oxfordshire]], England
| occupation       = {{flatlist|
*Novelist
*Assistant editor of ''[[Africa (journal)|Africa]]''
}}
| genre            = 
| movement         = 
| notableworks     = 
| signature        = 
| website          = 
| education        = [[St Hilda's College, Oxford]]
}}

'''Barbara Mary Crampton Pym''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|FRSL}} (2 June 1913 – 11 January 1980) was an English novelist. In the 1950s she published a series of social comedies, of which the best known are ''[[Excellent Women]]'' (1952) and ''[[A Glass of Blessings]]'' (1958). In 1977 her career was revived when the critic [[Lord David Cecil]] and the poet [[Philip Larkin]] both nominated her as the most underrated writer of the century. Her novel ''[[Quartet in Autumn]]'' (1977) was nominated for the [[Booker Prize]] that year, and she was elected as a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Literature]].

==Biography==

===Early life===
Barbara Mary Crampton Pym was born on 2 June 1913 at 72 Willow Street<ref name=dickins>{{cite book|last=Dickins|first=Gordon|title=An Illustrated Literary Guide to Shropshire|year=1987|publisher=Shropshire Libraries|pages=59, 104|isbn=0-903802-37-6}}</ref> in [[Oswestry]], Shropshire, the elder daughter of Irena Spenser, ''née'' Thomas (1886–1945) and Frederic Crampton Pym (1879–1966), a solicitor.<ref>{{Cite ODNB|title=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|date=2004-09-23|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/31574|pages=ref:odnb/31574|editor-last=Matthew|editor-first=H. C. G.|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/31574|access-date=2019-12-17|editor2-last=Harrison|editor2-first=B.}}</ref> She was educated at Queen's Park School, a girls' school in Oswestry. From the age of 12, she attended [[Huyton College]], near [[Liverpool]]. Pym's parents were active in the local Oswestry operatic society, and she was encouraged to write and be creative from a young age.<ref>{{cite book |last=Holt |first=Hazel |date=1990 |title=A Lot to Ask: A Life of Barbara Pym |location=London |publisher=Macmillan |page=13 |isbn=0525249370}}</ref> She spent most of her childhood at Morda Lodge in Morda Road, Oswestry, where in 1922 she staged her first play, ''The Magic Diamond'', performed by family and friends.<ref name=dickins/>

In 1931, she went to [[St Hilda's College, Oxford]], to study English. While at Oxford, she developed a close friendship with the future novelist and literary critic [[Robert Liddell]] who would read her early works and provide key feedback.<ref>Holt 1990, p. 57</ref> She took a second-class honours B.A. degree in English Language and Literature in 1934. In the 1930s, she travelled to Germany on several occasions, developing a love for the country as well as a romantic relationship with a young Nazi officer, Friedbert Gluck. Although she initially admired [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] and did not foresee the advent of war, she later recognised her "blind spot", and removed a character based on Gluck from the novel she was in the process of writing.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/apr/08/the-adventures-of-miss-barbara-pym-by-paula-byrne-the-modern-jane-austen|title=The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym by Paula Byrne – the 'modern Jane Austen'?|date=8 April 2021|author=Kathryn Hughes|website=The Guardian|access-date=8 April 2021}}</ref>

In early 1939, Pym approached [[Jonathan Cape]] about a job in publishing; none was available at the time. The outbreak of [[World War II]] changed her plans, and in 1941 she went to work for the Censorship Department in Bristol, initially checking letters between Irish families in Britain and Ireland, later joining the [[Women's Royal Naval Service]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym|author=[[Paula Byrne]]|publisher=HarperCollins|year=2021|pages=316–373}}</ref><ref name=guardian-20250501/> From 1943, she served in naval [[Postal censorship#World War II|postal censorship]] in Southampton, eventually being posted to [[Naples]].<ref>Holt 1990, pp.97–98</ref><ref name=guardian-20250501/> She had learned about coded messages while an examiner, and may have worked for or with [[MI5]].<ref name=guardian-20250501>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/may/01/author-barbara-pym-may-worked-mi5-research-suggests |title=Author Barbara Pym may have worked for MI5, research suggests |last=Khomami |first=Nadia |newspaper=The Guardian |date=1 May 2025 |access-date=3 May 2025}}</ref>

===Personal life===
In June 1946, Pym started work at the [[International African Institute]] in London. She became the assistant editor of the scholarly journal ''[[Africa (journal)|Africa]]'', where she would work until her retirement in 1974.<ref>Holt 1990, p.183</ref> That inspired her use of [[anthropology|anthropologists]] as characters in some of her novels, notably ''Excellent Women'', ''Less than Angels'', and ''An Unsuitable Attachment''. Pym's sister Hilary separated from her husband in 1946, and the two sisters moved together into a flat in [[Pimlico]]. They would later move to a house in [[Queen's Park, London|Queen's Park]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Pym |first=Barbara |date=1984 |title=A Very Private Eye: An Autobiography in Diaries and Letters (ed. Hazel Holt and Hilary Pym) |location=New York |publisher=E. P. Dutton |page=184 |isbn=0525242341}}</ref>

Pym did not marry or have children, despite several close relationships with men. In her undergraduate days, they included Henry Harvey (a fellow Oxford student, who remained the love of her life)<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120216145605/http://jamesruncie.com/docs/film_misspym.html James Runcie: "Miss Pym's Day Out"]. Accessed 17 March 2013</ref> and [[Rupert Gleadow]].<ref>Holt 1990, pp. 34–35</ref> When she was 24 she had a romance with the future politician [[Julian Amery]], six years her junior.<ref>Faber, David, Speaking for England, London, 2005, {{ISBN|0-7432-5688-3}}</ref> In 1942 she had a brief relationship with the BBC radio producer [[Gordon Glover]], who was the estranged husband of her friend [[Honor Wyatt]]. Glover broke this off abruptly, which traumatised Pym,<ref>Byrne, Paula, ''The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym'', (2021: William Collins), p 335.</ref> and when Glover died in 1975 she burnt her diary for 1942.<ref>Byrne, Paula, ''The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym'', (2021: William Collins), p 563.</ref>

===Early literary career===
Pym wrote her first novel, ''[[Some Tame Gazelle]]'', in 1935, but it was rejected by numerous publishers including [[Jonathan Cape]] and [[Victor Gollancz Ltd|Gollancz]].<ref>Pym 1984, p. 56</ref> She wrote another novel, ''Civil to Strangers'', in 1936 and several novellas in the following years, which were collectively published as ''[[Civil to Strangers]]'' after Pym's death. In 1940, Pym wrote the novel ''[[Crampton Hodnet]]'', which would also be published after her death.<ref>Pym 1984, p. 97</ref>

After some years of submitting stories to women's magazines, Pym heavily revised ''Some Tame Gazelle'', which this time was accepted by Jonathan Cape for publication in 1950.<ref name="Fowler">[https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/invisible-ink-no-68--barbara-pym-2240300.html Christopher Fowler, "Invisible Ink: No. 68"], ''The Independent'', 13 March 2011, accessed 30 September 2011</ref> The poet [[Philip Larkin]] regarded ''Some Tame Gazelle'' as Pym's ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Weld |first=Annette |date=1992 |title= Barbara Pym and the Novel of Manners |location=New York |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |page=58 |isbn=9781349216925}}</ref> The novel follows the lives of two middle-aged [[spinster]] sisters in an English village before the War, who are both given the possibility of love. That year, Pym also had a [[radio play]] – ''Something to Remember'' – accepted by the [[BBC]].<ref>Holt 1990, p. 145</ref>

Pym's second novel, ''[[Excellent Women]]'' (1952), was well received, but her third, ''[[Jane and Prudence]]'' (1953), received more mixed reviews.<ref>Holt 1990, p.164</ref> Her fourth novel, ''[[Less than Angels]]'' (1955), had poorer sales than the previous three,<ref>letter from Wren Howard to Barbara Pym, December 1955, published in ''A Few Green Leaves: The Journal of the Barbara Pym Society'', Vol 9, No. 2, November 2003</ref> but it attracted enough attention to be Pym's debut novel in [[the United States]]. A representative from [[Twentieth Century Fox]] came to England with an interest in securing the film rights, but this ultimately fell through.<ref>Holt 1990, p.171</ref>

Pym's fifth novel, ''[[A Glass of Blessings]]'' (1958), was poorly reviewed,  Pym noting that – of her first six novels – it was the worst reviewed.<ref>Pym 1984, p.203</ref> However, the inclusion of sympathetic [[homosexual]] characters, in an era when homosexuality was largely frowned upon, and homosexual acts between men were illegal, attracted some interest in contemporary reviews, including ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]''.<ref>Holt 1990, p.180</ref> Pym's sixth novel was ''[[No Fond Return of Love]]'' (1961), in which two female academic research assistants fall in love with the same man. The book continued the trend of Pym's novels receiving minimal critical attention. Nonetheless, it was positively reviewed in ''[[Tatler]]'', the reviewer commenting:

{{Blockquote
|text= I love and admire Miss Pym's pussycat wit and profoundly unsoppy kindliness, and we may leave the deeply peculiar, face-saving, gently tormented English middle classes safely in her hands.
}}After Pym made a less than flattering allusion to a [[Marks & Spencer|Marks and Spencer's]] dress in her work, the company's legal department was sufficiently concerned by her influence to write to her.<ref name=":0" />

==="Wilderness years"===
In 1963, Pym submitted her seventh novel – ''[[An Unsuitable Attachment]]'' – to Cape. Editor [[Tom Maschler]], who had recently joined the firm, rejected the manuscript, on the advice of two readers.<ref>{{Cite episode |title=Miss Pym's Day Out |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi8Zezov9RQ |access-date=26 April 2020 |series=Bookmark |station=[[BBC]] |date=19 February 1992 |season=9 |number=8 |minutes=36 |language=en}}</ref> Pym wrote back to protest that she was being unfairly treated, but was told (sympathetically but firmly) that the novel did not show promise.<ref>Holt 1990, pp.192–197</ref> Pym revised the manuscript and sent it to several other publishers, but with no success. Pym was advised that her style of writing was old-fashioned, and that the public were no longer interested in books about small-town spinsters and vicars. She was forced to consider finding a new authorial voice, but ultimately felt that she was too old to adapt to what publishers considered popular taste.<ref>https://barbara-pym.org/about-barbara-pym-and-her-writings/finding-a-voice/ Pym, Barbara, ''Finding a Voice'', radio talk given 4 April 1978 on [[BBC Radio 3]], archived at The Barbara Pym Society website, accessed 26 April 2020]</ref> Pym was told that the minimum 'economic figure' for book sales was 4,000 copies, whereas several of her books from the 1950s had not achieved that number.<ref>Holt 1990, p.204</ref>
 
As a result, Pym did not publish anything from 1962 until 1977. Regardless, she continued writing novels and short stories, and refining existing works, while she continued her professional career at the International African Institute. Pym never fully forgave Cape, or Tom Maschler. She and her sister invented a dessert called "Maschler pudding", which was a combination of [[lime (fruit)|lime]] [[Gelatin dessert|jelly]] and milk.<ref>{{Cite episode |title=Miss Pym's Day Out |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi8Zezov9RQ |access-date=26 April 2020 |series=Bookmark |station=[[BBC]] |date=19 February 1992 |season=9 |number=8 |minutes=35 |language=en}}</ref> In 1965, she wrote in a letter, "I really still wonder if my books will ''ever'' be acceptable again".<ref>Pym 1984, p.234</ref> Pym wrote ''[[The Sweet Dove Died]]'' in 1968 and ''[[An Academic Question]]'' in 1970. She submitted ''Dove'' to several publishers but it was again rejected. However, her earlier novels were reprinted during this period because of popular demand in public libraries.<ref>Pym 1984, p.254</ref> Pym wrote 27 short stories, of which only six were published during her lifetime. The remainder are stored in the Pym archives at the [[Bodleian Library]].<ref>''A Few Green Leaves: The Journal of the Barbara Pym Society'', Vol 11, No. 1, May 2005</ref>

In 1961, Pym began a correspondence with Philip Larkin, as he was preparing to write a review article of her novels.<ref>Pym 1984, p.214</ref> They continued a constant series of letters for 19 years, right up to her death. They met for the first time in April 1975, at the [[Randolph Hotel, Oxford]].

In 1971, Pym was diagnosed with [[breast cancer]] and underwent a [[mastectomy]] of her left breast. The operation was successful and she was deemed clear of cancer.<ref>Pym 1984, p.261</ref> In 1972, Pym and her sister Hilary purchased Barn Cottage at [[Finstock]] in Oxfordshire. The sisters played an active role in the social life of the village. Pym retired  in 1974.<ref>Pym 1984, p.276</ref> That year, she had a small [[stroke]], which left her with temporary [[dyslexia]].<ref>Holt 1990, p.240</ref> She continued to write, completing ''[[Quartet in Autumn]]'' in 1976, which was similarly rejected by [[Hamish Hamilton|Hamish Hamilton Limited]]. Although Pym was no longer being published, she found a job on the awards committee of the [[Romantic Novelists' Association]].

===Rediscovery and final years===
On 21 January 1977, the ''[[Times Literary Supplement]]'' ran an article in which high-profile writers and academics listed their most underrated and overrated books or authors of the previous 75 years (the lifetime of the publication). Pym was chosen as the most underrated writer by both Larkin and [[Lord David Cecil]], and was the only one to be selected by two contributors. On the strength of that article, literary interest in Pym was revived after 16 years.<ref name="Fowler"/><ref>Pym, ''Finding a Voice''</ref> Pym and Larkin had kept up a private correspondence for 17 years, but even his influence had previously been of no use in getting her a new publishing contract. Several publishing companies expressed an interest, including her former publisher Cape. Pym rejected them in favour of Macmillan, who agreed to publish ''Quartet in Autumn'' the same year.<ref>Pym 1984, p.294</ref> Before ''Quartet'' had been published, Macmillan also agreed to publish ''The Sweet Dove Died'', which she had reworked since completing it 10 years earlier. Cape reprinted her earlier novels, to which they still had the rights. The [[BBC]] interviewed Pym for a programme, ''Tea with Miss Pym'', which aired on 21 October 1977. Reviews of ''Quartet'' were almost uniformly positive, and the novel was nominated for the 1977 [[Booker Prize]]. Pym attended the ceremony, but the award went to [[Paul Scott (novelist)|Paul Scott]] for ''[[Staying On]]''.

The rediscovery also meant Pym was noticed in the United States for the first time. [[E. P. Dutton]] secured the rights to all of her existing novels, starting with ''Excellent Women'' and ''Quartet in Autumn'', and published her entire ''oeuvre'' between 1978 and 1987.<ref>Holt 1990, p.299</ref> The discovery of Pym's novels, combined with the narrative of her "comeback", made her a minor success in the USA during that period.<ref name="Fowler"/> Following her return to the public eye, she was elected as a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Literature]].<ref name="Salwak1987">{{cite book|author=Dale Salwak|title=The Life and Work of Barbara Pym|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EiiwCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA39|date=18 June 1987|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|isbn=978-1-349-08538-5|pages=39–}}</ref> Pym was interviewed for an episode of ''[[Desert Island Discs]]'' on 1 August 1978, which was replayed on [[BBC Radio 4 Extra]] on 2 June 2013 – the centenary of her birth.<ref name=DowlenonPym>{{cite web|author1=Jerry Dowlen|title=The very best Christmas features... Jerry Dowlen celebrates the life and centenary of Barbara Pym...|url=http://www.booksmonthly.co.uk/jd.html|website=booksmonthly.co.uk|publisher=Paul Norman|access-date=5 April 2015|format=monthly literary column|date=December 2013|quote=Barbara Pym's appearance on 'Desert Island Discs' on 1 August 1978 was replayed on BBC Radio 4 Extra on 2 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141224150904/http://www.booksmonthly.co.uk/jd.html|archive-date=24 December 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Pym's later novels have a more sombre, reflective tone than her earlier ones, which were in the [[high comedy]] tradition. By mid-1977, she had conceived an idea for her next novel, ''[[A Few Green Leaves]]'', which would turn out to be her last. In January 1979, a lump in Pym's abdomen was diagnosed as malignant, a return of the breast cancer she had had in 1971. She underwent [[chemotherapy]] while completing the draft of ''A Few Green Leaves''.<ref>Pym 1984, pages 322–323</ref> Aware she did not have long to live, she attempted to complete the novel before her death. She had already considered the plot of another novel, which would follow two women from different social backgrounds, starting with their youth and moving through to maturity, including sequences set in World War II,<ref name="Holt 1990, p.275">Holt 1990, p.275</ref> but she would never get to start work on it. By October 1979, Pym was confined to bed.<ref>Holt 1990, p.277</ref> Although not entirely satisfied with the final draft of ''A Few Green Leaves'', she submitted it to Macmillan, and it was published in 1980, shortly after her death.

On 11 January 1980, Barbara Pym died of breast cancer, aged 66. Following her death, her sister Hilary continued to champion her work, and was involved in setting up the Barbara Pym Society in 1993. Posthumously, ''Crampton Hodnet'', ''An Academic Question'' and ''An Unsuitable Attachment'' were published, in conjunction with Pym's literary executor, the novelist [[Hazel Holt]]. Holt and Hilary Pym also published a collection, ''[[Civil to Strangers|Civil to Strangers and Other Writings]]'', which was a collection of short stories and novellas mostly from Pym's early years. Holt and Hilary Pym published three additional volumes: ''[[A Very Private Eye]]'', an "autobiography" based on Pym's edited diaries and letters, ''[[A Lot To Ask: A Life of Barbara Pym]]'', a biography written by Holt, and ''[[À La Pym|A la Pym]]'', a cookbook comprising recipes for dishes featured in Pym's novels.

Hilary lived at Barn Cottage until her death in February 2004. The Pym sisters are buried in Finstock churchyard. In 2006, a [[blue plaque]] was placed on the cottage, marking it as a historic site.

==Legacy==

The Barbara Pym Society, established by fans of the author, was formed on 15 April 1994, subsequent to a literary weekend exploring the work of Barbara Pym held at St. Hilda’s College in 1993. The Society holds its Annual General Meeting at St. Hilda’s every September. The Barbara Pym Society also holds a spring meeting in London, and an annual North American conference in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]]. 

An [[English Heritage]] [[blue plaque]] honouring Pym was installed at 108 Cambridge Street, [[Pimlico]] in London on 1 May 2025, marking where she lived between 1945–1949, the period during which her first novel was published.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Barbara Pym {{!}} Novelist {{!}} blue plaques |url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/barbara-pym |access-date=2025-05-01 |website=English Heritage}}</ref>  

==Works and themes==
Several strong themes link works in the Pym [[Canon (fiction)|canon]], which are more notable for their [[Style (fiction)|style]] and [[characterisation]] than for their plots. A superficial reading gives the impression that they are [[Sketch story|sketches]] of village or London life, and [[comedy of manners|comedies of manners]], studying the social activities connected with the [[Anglican]] church, [[Anglo-Catholic]] parishes in particular. Pym attended several churches over her lifetime, including [[St Michael and All Angels Church, Barnes]], where she served on the Parochial Church Council.

Pym closely examines many aspects of relations between women and men, including unrequited feelings of women for men, based on her own experience. Pym was also one of the first popular novelists to write sympathetically about unambiguously gay characters, notably in ''[[A Glass of Blessings]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10071305/Philip-Hensher-toasts-the-novelist-Barbara-Pym.html|title=Philip Hensher toasts the novelist Barbara Pym|author=Philip Hensher|date=2 June 2013|website=The Telegraph|access-date=29 July 2018}}</ref> She portrayed the layers of community and figures in the church through church functions. The dialogue is often deeply [[irony|ironic]]. A tragic undercurrent runs through some of the later novels, especially ''Quartet in Autumn'' and ''The Sweet Dove Died''.

More recently, critics have noted the serious engagement with anthropology that Pym's novels depict. The seemingly naive narrator Mildred Lathbury (''Excellent Women''), for example, actually engages in a kind of participant-observer form that represents a reaction to the [[structural functionalism]] of the Learned Society's focus on kinship diagrams.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Watson|first1=Tim|title=Culture Writing: Literature and Anthropology in the Midcentury Atlantic World|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2018|pages=49–76}}</ref> Tim Watson links Pym's acute awareness of the social changes in the apparently cosy world of her novels to a critique of functionalism's emphasis on static social structures.

Pym's novels are known for their [[intertextuality]]. All of Pym's novels contain frequent references to English poetry and literature, from medieval poetry to much more recent work, including [[John Keats]] and [[Frances Greville]].

Additionally, Pym's novels function as a [[shared universe]], in which characters from one work can cross over into another. Usually the reappearances are in the form of brief cameos or mentions by other characters. For instance, the relationship between Mildred Lathbury and Everard Bone in ''Excellent Women'' is left unconfirmed at the end of that novel. However, the characters are referenced or appear in ''Jane and Prudence'', ''Less than Angels'', and ''An Unsuitable Attachment'', in which their marriage and happiness are confirmed. The character of Esther Clovis, a leading member of the anthropological community, appears first in ''Excellent Women'' and then in two other novels before her death; her memorial service is seen from the point of view of two different (unrelated) characters in ''An Academic Question'' and ''A Few Green Leaves''. Esther Clovis is thought to have been inspired by [[Beatrice Wyatt]], Pym's predecessor as assistant editor of ''Africa''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.brunel.ac.uk/creative-writing/research/entertext/documents/entertext072/ET72TyleeED.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220118131208/https://www.brunel.ac.uk/creative-writing/research/entertext/documents/entertext072/ET72TyleeED.pdf |archive-date=2022-01-18 |url-status=live|title=The Self and Others in 1950s England: Anthropology and the Literary Imagination in Barbara Pym's Less Than Angels|author=Claire Tylee|access-date=18 January 2022}}</ref>

==Popular culture and reputation==
Forewords to her novels have been written by [[A. N. Wilson]], [[Jilly Cooper]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3669659/The-Insider-Jilly-Cooper-on-Barbara-Pym.html|title=The Insider: Jilly Cooper on Barbara Pym|date=2 December 2007|website=The Telegraph|access-date=24 April 2019}}</ref> and [[Alexander McCall Smith]].

[[Philip Larkin]] said, "I'd sooner read a new Barbara Pym than a new [[Jane Austen]]". [[Shirley Hazzard]] was a fan of Pym's work, which she described as "penetrating, tender, and... greatly daring".<ref name="Holt 1990, p.275"/> The novelist [[Anne Tyler]] wrote about her work:<ref>Holt 1990, p.276</ref>
{{Blockquote
|text= Whom do people turn to when they've finished Barbara Pym? The answer is easy: they turn back to Barbara Pym.
}}

On 19 February 1992, the British television series ''Bookmark'' broadcast an episode entitled ''Miss Pym's Day Out'', written and directed by [[James Runcie]]. The film follows Pym (played by [[Patricia Routledge]]) from dawn to evening on the day she attended the 1977 Booker Prize awards, for which ''Quartet in Autumn'' was nominated. The script includes excerpts from Pym's letters and diaries. Appearances by real-life figures including Hilary Pym, [[Hazel Holt]], [[Jilly Cooper]], [[Tom Maschler]] and [[Penelope Lively]] are contrasted with adapted excerpts from Pym's novels performed by actors.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://barbara-pym.org/about-barbara-pym-and-her-writings/miss-pyms-day-out/| title = The Barbara Pym Society, accessed 26 April 2020}}</ref> The film was nominated for a [[British Academy Film Awards|BAFTA]] [[Huw Wheldon]] award for Best Arts Programme<ref>{{cite web| url = http://awards.bafta.org/keyword-search?keywords=Huw%20Wheldon%20Award| title = BAFTA Awards website, accessed 27 April 2020}}</ref> and won the Royal Television Society award for Best Arts Programme.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.americanradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-UK/Broadcasting/Archive-BBC-IDX/IDX/90s/BBC-Year-Book-1992-OCR-Page-0032.pdf| title = American Radio History website, accessed 27 April 2020}}</ref>

==Novels==
*''[[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) {{ISBN|0-333-22778-6}}
*''[[The Sweet Dove Died]]'' (1978) {{ISBN|1-55921-301-9}}
*''[[A Few Green Leaves]]'' (completed 1979/1980; published posthumously, 1980) {{ISBN|1-55921-228-4}}
*''[[An Unsuitable Attachment]]'' (written 1963; published posthumously, 1982) {{ISBN|0-330-32646-5}}
*''[[Crampton Hodnet]]'' (completed circa 1940, published posthumously, 1985) {{ISBN|1-55921-243-8}}
*''[[An Academic Question]]'' (written 1970–72; published posthumously, 1986)
*''[[Civil to Strangers]]'' (written 1936; published posthumously, 1987) 
*"Poor Mildred", "They Never Write"; "The German Baron" (short stories; published posthumously, 2024) {{ISBN|979-8-218-42830-3}}

==Biography and autobiography==
*Barbara Pym – ''[[A Very Private Eye]]: An Autobiography in Diaries and Letters'', edited: Hazel Holt and Hilary Pym (1984)
*Hilary Pym and [[Honor Wyatt]] – ''[[À La Pym|À la Pym: The Barbara Pym Cookery Book]]'' (1988)
*[[Hazel Holt]] – ''[[A Lot To Ask: A Life of Barbara Pym]]'' (1990)
*Yvonne Cocking – ''Barbara at the [[Bodleian Library|Bodleian]]: Revelations from the Pym Archives'' (2013; {{ISBN|978-0615765662}})<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://barbara-pym.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/GL-Vol19No1-Spring_2013.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726144018/https://barbara-pym.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/GL-Vol19No1-Spring_2013.pdf |archive-date=2020-07-26 |url-status=live|title=North American Conference of the Barbara Pym Society (15–17 March 2013)|author=Chris Rutherford|journal=Green Leaves|date=Spring 2013|pages=1–2, 8}}</ref>
*[[Paula Byrne]] − ''The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym'', London : William Collins; {{ISBN|978-0008322205}} (2021)

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Hazel K Bell (ed.) – ''No Soft Incense: Barbara Pym and the Church'' (2004)
*Orna Raz – ''Social Dimensions in the Novels of Barbara Pym, 1949–1962: the Writer as Hidden Observer'' (2007)

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
*[http://www.barbara-pym.org The Barbara Pym Society] based at St Hilda's College, Oxford.
*[http://oxonblueplaques.org.uk/plaques/pym.html Blue plaque to Barbara Pym on her Finstock home]
*[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009mykr Barbara Pym Desert Island Discs, BBC]

{{Barbara Pym}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pym, Barbara}}
[[Category:1913 births]]
[[Category:1980 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Oswestry]]
[[Category:Writers from Shropshire]]
[[Category:Alumni of St Hilda's College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Deaths from breast cancer in England]]
[[Category:English women novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century English women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century English novelists]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature]]