Reading guides
Barbara Pym’s compassionate and funny novel about four people in late middle-age with different eccentricities but the same problem: loneliness
Edwin, Norman, Letty and Marcia’s chief point of contact, at least until the two women retire, is that they work in the same office. Lovingly and poignantly, satirically in the gentlest but sharpest way, Pym conducts us through their small lives and the facades they erect to defend themselves against the outside world. She also imbues an obstinate optimism in her characters, allowing them, in their different ways, to win through to a kind of hope.
Barbara Pym
About the Author
Barbara Pym was born in Oswestry, England. She was acclaimed as ‘the most underrated writer of the century’ by Philip LarkinFeatures
