{"product_id":"the-adventures-of-miss-barbara-pym-a-times-book-of-the-year-2021","title":"The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym: A Times Book of the Year 2021","description":"‘Captures both Barbara and her writing so miraculously’ JILLY COOPER\n\nPicked as a Book to Look Forward to in 2021 by the Guardian, The Times and the Observer\nA Radio 4 Book of the Week, April 2021\nBarbara Pym became beloved as one of the wittiest novelists of the late twentieth century, revealing the inner workings of domestic life so brilliantly that her friend Philip Larkin announced her the era’s own Jane Austen. But who was Barbara Pym and why was the life of this English writer – one of the greatest chroniclers of the human heart – so defined by rejection, both in her writing and in love?\nPym lived through extraordinary times. She attended Oxford in the thirties when women were the minority. She spent time in Nazi Germany, falling for a man who was close to Hitler. She made a career on the Home Front as a single working girl in London’s bedsit land. Through all of this, she wrote. Diaries, notes, letters, stories and more than a dozen novels – which as Byrne shows more often than not reflected the themes of Pym’s own experience: worlds of spinster sisters and academics in unrequited love, of powerful intimacies that pulled together seemingly humble lives.\nPaula Byrne’s new biography is the first to make full use of Barbara Pym’s archive. Brimming with new extracts from Pym’s diaries, letters and novels, this book is a joyous introduction to a woman who was herself the very best of company.\nByrne brings Barbara Pym back to centre stage as one of the great English novelists: a generous, shrewdly perceptive writer and a brave woman, who only in the last years of her life was suddenly, resoundingly recognised for her genius.\u003cbr\u003eASIN: 0008322201\u003cbr\u003eVSKU: BVV.0008322201.G\u003cbr\u003eCondition: Good\u003cbr\u003eAuthor\/Artist:Byrne, Paula\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNote:\u003c\/b\u003e Any images shown are stock photographs and product may differ from what is shown.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition Notes\u003c\/b\u003e: The item shows wear from consistent use, but it remains in good condition and works perfectly. All pages and cover are intact  including the dust cover, if applicable . Spine may show signs of wear. Pages may include limited notes and highlighting. May NOT include discs, access code or other supplemental materials.  \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Blue Vase Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43029537325117,"sku":"BVV.0008322201.G","price":9.66,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0589\/4225\/9261\/files\/0008322201-0.jpg?v=1772832090","url":"https:\/\/www.bluevasebooks.com\/products\/the-adventures-of-miss-barbara-pym-a-times-book-of-the-year-2021","provider":"Blue Vase Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}