Iain Finlayson
An Interview with Barbara Pym
Editor’s Note: Barbara Pym died on the 11th January 1980.
An afternoon with Miss Pym involved first catching a train to Oxford, transferring there to a line that Dr Beeching forgot, and finally casting vainly around for a taxi in the middle of deep country which conceals the village of Finstock. At the door of the tiny cottage she shared with her sister, Barbara Pym stood clutching a cat and smiled tentatively as yet another journalist disembarked. She was taller than expected: she well nigh filled the door-frame, and loomed pear-shaped ‘Within the tiny rooms. While her visitor fiddled around with his tape recorder, she made tea and conversation before finally settling, faintly uneasily, on a sofa. It is almost cliched to say that she was a figure from English fiction, but in her ladylike way she gathered around her the ghosts of all ladies of slender means and considerable character – the persona was deceptive and briskness, like cheerfulness, kept breaking through. In a novel by Angus Wilson or Muriel Spark, she would have been a character of the greatest fascination.
Admitting their error, Jonathan Cape are reissuing Barbara Pym’s corpus of novels so ingloriously neglected by that firm until the combined elbow-jogging of Philip Larkin and Lord David Cecil prompted republication. Among the treasures are No Fond Return of Love. and Jane and Prudence (£4.95 each from Jonathan Cape). The
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm