by Paula Byrne
CHAPTER VII
1. Literary Notebook XLI (MS. Pym 80), 8 January 1979.
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2. Literary Notebook XLI, 13 January–14 February 1979.
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3. BP to PL, 15 March 1979.
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4. PL to BP, 18 March 1979.
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5. Literary Notebook XLII (MS. Pym 81), 23 March 1979.
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6. Literary Notebook XLII, April 1979.
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7. BP to PL, 1 May 1979.
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8. Literary Notebook XLII, 18 May 1979.
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9. Literary Notebook XLIII (MS. Pym 82), 3 June–24 June 1979.
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10. BP to PL, 2 July 1979.
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11. Literary Notebook XLIII, August 1979.
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12. BP to RS, 18 October 1979.
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13. ALTA, p. 277.
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14. BP to PL, 28 October 1979.
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EPILOGUE
1. PL to Anthony Thwaite, 21 January 1980, Thwaite (ed.), Selected Letters, p. 615.
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2. Anderton, ‘Barbara Pym’, Oldie Magazine, January 2020.
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3. ‘The Novelist’s Use of Everyday Life’, lecture given in 1956 (MS. Pym 98, fols. 66–123).
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4. ‘The Novelist’s Use of Everyday Life’.
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5. RL, ‘Account of his friendship with Barbara Pym’, written February 1981 (MS. Pym 153, fols. 198–202).
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6. RL, ‘Account of his friendship’.
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7. Larkin, ‘An Arundel Tomb’, the closing poem of Whitsun Weddings (p. 46).
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AFTERWORD
1. SDD, p. 85. Robert Wyatt Ellidge recalled Pym’s funniness when saying the word ‘scones’: https://www.albionbeatnik.co.uk/2016/12/13/tea-and-scone-with-barbara-pym/.
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2. George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius (1941), p. 11.
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3. SDD, p. 120.
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4. Readers wishing to venture into the territory of academic criticism might begin with the close reading of four novels in Deborah Donato, Reading Barbara Pym (2006), the social historical contextualisation by Orna Raz, Social Dimensions in the Novels of Barbara Pym, 1949–1962: The Writer as Hidden Observer (2007), and the varied collection of essays ‘All This Reading’: The Literary World of Barbara Pym, edited by Frauke Elisabeth Lenckos and Ellen J. Miller (2003).
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5. Barbara Pym’s love of the eighteenth-century author Edward Young took her not only to his Night Thoughts but also to his Conjectures on Original Composition (1759), in which he wrote that truly original authors ‘shine like comets’ and that the greatest of them all, Shakespeare, ‘mingled no water with his wine’. In Some Tame Gazelle, she combined the simile and the metaphor, describing her autobiographical heroine Belinda in a phrase that remains supremely appropriate to Barbara Pym herself.
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Suggestions for Further Reading
Miss Pym’s Works
Some Tame Gazelle (1950)
Excellent Women (1952)
Jane and Prudence (1953)
Less than Angels (1955)
A Glass of Blessings (1958)
No Fond Return of Love (1961)
Quartet in Autumn (1977)
The Sweet Dove Died (1978)
A Few Green Leaves (1980)
An Unsuitable Attachment (rejected 1963; published posthumously, 1982)
Crampton Hodnet (completed 1940; published posthumously, 1985)
An Academic Question (written 1970–72; published posthumously, 1986)
A Very Private Eye: An Autobiography in Diaries and Letters, posthumously selected and edited from her papers by Hazel Holt and Hilary Pym (1984)
Civil to Strangers and Other Writings, short stories and extracts from unpublished novels, edited posthumously by Hazel Holt (1987)
Miss Pym’s World
Hazel Holt, A Lot to Ask: A Life of Barbara Pym (1990) was the first biography, written by her colleague at the Africa Institute, with the benefit of personal knowledge. A psychoanalytic approach was taken in Anne M. Wyatt-Brown, Barbara Pym: A Critical Biography (1992) and there are some fresh insights in Ann Allestree, Barbara Pym: A Passionate Force (2015), but the most valuable addition to Hazel Holt is Yvonne Cocking’s splendid Barbara in the Bodleian: Revelations from the Pym Archives (2013).
My sense of Pym at Oxford was shaped by part 3 of L. W. B. Brockliss, The University of Oxford: A History (2016) and, for atmosphere, the research in my own Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead (2009). My understanding of Pym’s German experience owed much to Travellers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism through the Eyes of Everyday People (2017), Julia Boyd’s fascinating account of how other visitors were allured by what they saw there in the 1930s. Pym’s realisation of the ugly reality was made possible by Lion Feuchtwanger’s powerful novel The Oppermanns (English translation, 1934), which is still very much worth reading. It is also worth tracking down Bartlett Vernon, Nazi Germany Explained (1933) and the script of the radio-drama Shadow of the Swastika (1940).
Social histories helped me enormously in bringing Pym’s world alive, notably Martin Pugh, We Danced all Night: A Social History of Britain between the Wars (2008); Lara Feigel, The Love-charm of Bombs: Restless Lives in the Second World War (2013); Rachel Cooke, Her Brilliant Career: Ten Extraordinary Women of the Fifties (2014); Virginia Nicholson, How Was It for You? Women, Sex, Love and Power in the 1960s (2019); and Janet H. Howarth, Women in Britain: Voices and Perspectives from Twentieth-Century History (2019).
Pym’s beloved Julian Amery is brought alive in David Faber’s excellent family biography, Speaking for England: Leo, Julian and John Amery – The Tragedy of a Political Family (2005) and her loyal fan Philip Larkin in Andrew Motion, Philip Larkin: A Writer’s Life (1993) – and many of his letters to her are included in Selected Letters of Philip Larkin, edited by Anthony Thwaite (1992). The ecclesiastical aspect of her novels is explored in the essays in No Soft Incense: Barbara Pym and the Church, ed. Hazel K. Bell (2004). This was published by the Barbara Pym Society, in the journal of which, Green Leaves, there is a wealth of Pymiana.
One of the great pleasures of entering Miss Pym’s world is the discovery of the writers she loved. Aldous Huxley’s Crome Yellow (1921) inspired her to become a novelist; Philip Larkin’s Jill (1946) is set in an Oxford much like hers; John Betjeman’s Continual Dew (1937) was her favourite volume of contemporary poetry – until the publication of Larkin’s The Whitsun Weddings (1964). For Elizabeth von Armin, readers should start with The Enchanted April (1922) or Elizabeth and her German Garden (1898) and then move on to Love (1925) and Mr Skeffington (1940), which share Pym’s theme of an older woman falling for a younger man; for Ivy Compton-Burnett, Pastors and Masters (1925), More Women than Men (1933), or Manservant and Maidservant (1947); for Elizabeth Taylor, Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont (1971); for Denton Welch, Maiden Voyage (1943), In Youth is Pleasure (1945) and The Denton Welch Journals (1952), which Pym loved. Her taste for ephemera may be sampled in Logan Pearsall Smith, All Trivia (1945). A reading of Stevie Smith’s Novel on Yellow Paper (1936) will allow for an appreciation of the parodies Miss Pym and Jock Liddell shared in their correspondence.
Robert Liddell was my great discovery during the research for this book. His study A Mind an Ease: Barbara Pym and her Novels (1989) is far from his best work – as we have seen, her mind was usually anything but at ease
. His brief sketch of Taylor and Compton-Burnett, Elizabeth and Ivy (1986), is more rewarding, but it is the autobiographical fiction trilogy that is his masterpiece: Kind Relations (1939), The Last Enchantments (1948), so evocative of Pym’s Oxford, and Stepsons (1969). And there is a not entirely generous portrait of Miss Pym herself in An Object for a Walk (1966).
Index
The page numbers in this index relate to the printed version of this book; they do not match the pages of your ebook. You can use your ebook reader’s search tool to find a specific word or passage.
Abersoch (Welsh resort), 294
academic life, 605; Gleadow on, 49; in Crampton Hodnet, 237–41, 244–7; in Less Than Angels, 437–42, 446; post-war London, 437–42; Pym’s views on academic writing, 438, 440; academic women in early 1970s, 543; Pym’s campus novel, 549, 550–3; Robbins Report (1963), 551 see also anthropology; International African Institute (London)
Ackland, Valentine, 349
Adeney, Noël, 458
Africa magazine, 2, 382, 412, 434, 437, 440, 498
Albania, 313
Alberg, Dr Michale, 224, 225, 227, 248, 269, 278
All Saints’ Notting Hill, 470
Alvarez, Al, 520
Ambrose, Bert, 75
Amery, Florence, 252, 264–7, 272, 276, 439
Amery, John, 204–5, 265; hanged for treason (December 1945), 373, 609
Amery, Julian: Pym meets, 192–5; political ambitions of, 193–4, 244, 245–6, 265, 271–2; Pym’s relationship with, 199–200, 201–6, 207–9, 222–4, 225, 247, 249–51; in Spain to report on civil war, 206, 207–8, 212–13, 214–15; house at 112 Eaton Square, 223, 236, 248–9, 252–3, 264–5, 271–2, 306, 309; in The Lumber Room, 230, 231–2, 233, 234–5, 244; in Crampton Hodnet, 244–6, 249, 271, 273, 283; Pym’s ‘stalking’ of, 248–9, 253, 449; Oxford Union motion on conscription (April 1939), 248; Pym’s visit to Eaton Square, 252–3, 264–5, 271–2, 306, 309; ends relationship with Pym, 253, 271–3, 274, 309; in Pym’s home front novel, 265, 271–2, 273, 275–6, 277; WW2 service, 269, 275–6, 277–8, 282, 311–14, 326, 327, 337, 363, 397; Pym’s memories of love affair, 283, 303–4, 306, 309, 327, 335–6, 337, 573; in So Very Secret (spy novel), 308–9, 316; serves in SOE, 311–12; in ‘Goodbye Balkan Capital,’ 312–14; brother John hanged for treason, 373, 609; and Excellent Women, 403; in Jane and Prudence, 429
Amery, Leo, 193, 205, 229, 252, 276, 277, 283, 286, 309, 373
Amis, Kingsley, 474–5, 563
anthropology, 379, 406–7, 436–40, 495, 551, 592–3; as close to work of novelist, 382–3, 438, 610; in Excellent Women, 403, 405, 406–7, 412, 418–19; in Less Than Angels, 434, 436–40, 441–2; Pym at conference in Rome (1961), 471–2; in An Unsuitable Attachment, 478, 479
anti-Semitism: in Nazi Germany, 107, 114, 140–1, 152, 213–14, 218–19, 221, 225–6, 298–9; of Unity Mitford, 141; of the blackshirts, 194; Nazi atrocities in concentration camps, 269–70
appeasement, policy of, 229, 276
Ariel magazine, 543
Armstrong-Jones, Antony, 477, 490
Arnim, Elizabeth von (Mary Annette Beauchamp), 172, 177, 179, 405, 480–1, 588–9
Arnold, Matthew, 23, 327, 384
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 116
Asquith, Cynthia, 434
astrology, 47
L’Atelier (Skipper’s antique shop in Sloane Street), 498, 502, 511, 514, 523, 539
Atkin, Frances, 443–5
ATS (women’s territorial army), 284
Auden, W.H., 198
Austen, Jane: cottage in Chawton, Hampshire, 1, 540; Pym compared with, 1, 129, 413, 423, 435, 441, 521, 541, 546–7, 550, 578, 582, 608, 612; English villages of, 2, 239, 413; prioritising of female experience in, 2, 133; juvenilia, 21; life of, 64, 381, 564, 602, 605; art of dialogue and comic timing, 118; and Bath, 294; on female constancy, 369–70, 441; Cecil’s readings of, 460, 576; irony in work of, 490; Some Tame Gazelle as Pym’s Pride and Prejudice, 505, 540; wilderness years, 541; Pride and Prejudice, 178, 225, 396, 505, 540; Northanger Abbey, 183; Sense and Sensibility, 246; Mansfield Park, 279, 297, 326, 468; Persuasion, 282, 369–70, 441, 468, 505, 540, 602; Emma, 294, 295, 425, 427, 462, 464, 593; The Watsons (unfinished novel), 297
The Author magazine, 560
autobiographical heroines: Flora, 23, 188–91, 199, 217, 230–1; Belinda Bede, 123–4, 127–8, 132–4, 149, 153–7, 163, 170, 189–90, 387, 389–96, 401, 404, 555, 591, 599; Anthea Cleveland, 238, 244–6, 249, 271; Flora Palfrey, 258, 259, 265–6, 271–3, 275–6; Laura Arling, 258, 289–92, 294–5, 312–14; Cassandra Swan, 307–10; Mildred Lathbury, 324, 378, 400, 401–10, 412, 423–4, 505; Prudence Bates, 424, 425–7, 428–32, 434–5, 464, 490, 501, 579; Dulcie, 465–9; Ianthe Broome, 472, 478–80, 481, 508–9; Leonora Eyre, 503–4, 509, 532, 535–9, 544–5, 587, 606
Bacon, Francis, 497
the Bahamas, 492–3, 496, 501–2, 508, 514, 528
Bailey, David, 490
Bailey, Paul, 582
Bainbridge, Beryl, 582
Balzac, Honoré de, La comédie humaine, 34
Barbellion, W. N. P., The Journal of a Disappointed Man, 326
Barn Cottage, Finstock, 555–6, 559, 560, 562–5, 574–7
Barnicot, Elizabeth, 413, 423, 446
Barnicot, John (‘the Count’), 75, 76, 85–6, 96, 113–14, 122, 131, 159, 160, 174–5, 197–8; background of, 82–3; on Pym-Harvey relationship, 99, 144, 147, 169; in Some Tame Gazelle, 127, 221; and nasty incident on the river, 145; stays at Morda Lodge (summer 1935), 149; flying visit to Shropshire, 177; Henry Harvey on, 181
Bartlett, Vernon, Nazi Germany Explained, 111
Barty-King, Mark, 542
Bath, 294
Bayley, John, 459, 460, 528, 552, 575, 583–4
Bayley, Phyllis, 465
Bayly, Thomas Haynes, 389
BBC, 75, 209, 253, 258, 294, 295, 322; Hilary Pym works for, 253, 258, 294, 295, 305–6, 316, 317, 321, 399, 471; Home Service, 278; ITMA – It’s That Man Again, 338, 344; Pym’s Something to Remember broadcast by, 399; coronation broadcast (1953), 436, 437; radio adaptation of No Fond Return of Love, 524; Hilary Pym retires from, 553; Excellent Women read on Story Time, 572; feature on Pym for Woman’s Hour, 575; Tea with Miss Pym (The Book Programme film), 575, 576–7; Pym’s radio talk for Finding a Voice, 585; Woman’s Hour adapts Quartet, 585; Pym appears on Desert Island Discs, 586, 588–9, 591, 603
the Beatles, 2, 486, 497, 502, 543, 581
Beckett, Samuel, 106
Belfast, 306
Belgrade, 277–8, 282, 313
Bennett, Arnold, 180
Berlin, 92, 107, 213–14, 227–8, 371–2
Betjeman, John, 158, 209, 212, 219–20, 231, 373, 504, 505; review of Excellent Women, 400, 423; Continual Dew, 203, 209, 330; ‘The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at Cadogan Hotel,’ 209; ‘Slough,’ 209; ‘In Westminster Abbey,’ 532–3
Bettiscombe Manor, 347–8, 349
Beveridge Report (1942), 398
Binding, Paul, 562, 570, 583–4
Blackwood, Caroline, 564, 584
Blixen, Karen, 106
The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg film, 1930), 92
Blytheswood (house in Shropshire), 306, 316, 377
Bodleian Library, Oxford, 62, 65, 67–8, 71, 83, 91, 92–3, 174, 390, 602; Barbara Pym archive at, 19, 152, 585, 608, 609, 611–12; Austen’s juvenilia in, 21; history/traditions of, 27–8; Jock Liddell’s job at, 72, 126–7, 128, 136, 166–7, 239, 242; in Crampton Hodnet (novel), 239, 242
Boecklin, Arnold, Die Insel der Toten, 206
Booker Prize, 575, 577, 584–5
Boots’ circulating libraries, 17, 489, 532–3
Botanical Gardens, Oxford, 204, 205
Bourdillon, Edmund Dewar, 12
Bourdon House (antique shop, London), 509
Bowen, Elizabeth, 419, 420
Boyd, Julia, 152
Braine, John, Room at the Top, 490
Brazil, Angela, 15–16, 474
Brecht, Bertolt, 107, 1
14
Brennan, Maeve, 475, 550
Bristol: Hilary Pym works for BBC in, 294, 295, 317, 321; Pym works at Censorship Department in, 317; The Coppice in Clifton, 321–4, 325–7, 330–1, 333–4, 335–40, 344–5, 349, 350–4, 356–8, 359, 360, 408; Blitz in, 324, 327
British Red Cross, 258
British Union of Fascists, 138–9, 194, 268
Brittain, Vera, 348
Britten, Benjamin, 420
Brooke, Jocelyn, 456
Brown, Audrey, 10
Brown, Helen Gurley, Sex and the Single Girl, 487
Bryan, Margaret, 381
Buchan, John, 83
Buchenwald concentration camp, 270
Budapest, 148, 158, 159, 178, 179, 205
Burns, Robert, 350
Butler, Samuel, The Way of All Flesh, 112–13
Byron, Lord, 329, 551, 596; Childe Harold, 445
Callas, Maria, 588
Cambridge University, 22, 74, 83, 95, 117, 360, 569
Camus, Albert, 106
Capri, 365–6
Catholicism, 90, 224–5, 507–8, 597
cats, 9, 450, 472, 506; Tatiana, 471; Minerva, 478, 507, 515–17, 564, 575, 577, 596; Tom, 555, 556, 564; new tabby has kittens (1979), 597
Catullus, 133
Cecil, Lord David, 1, 459, 460, 562, 570–2, 574–5, 576, 577
Chamberlain, Neville, 225–6, 228–9, 253, 276, 286, 287, 593
Chatsworth House, 465, 596
Chatto & Windus (publisher), 158, 159–60
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 28, 115
Chawton, Hampshire, 1, 540
Chekhov, Anton, The Seagull, 100–1
Cheyne Walk (Chelsea), 348–9
The Chicago Tribune, 583
Childs, Stephen Lawford, 277
Chiswick House, 456–7
Chivers of Bath, 532, 546
Christie’s auction house, 518
Church Times, 583, 590, 606
Churchill, Randolph, 199
Churchill, Winston, 194, 228–9, 269, 286, 287
Clark, John, 510–11
clergy, life of: crushes on young curates, 10, 16; curate’s combinations, 10, 390, 398, 606; in Some Tame Gazelle, 10, 127–8, 132, 133, 134, 154–5, 189–90, 390, 393–6, 413, 556; pompous clergymen, 127, 128, 132, 133, 154, 178, 241, 393–4; knitting/darning socks for, 128, 132, 133, 134, 394–5; boring/overlong sermons, 133; lazy clergymen, 133, 393, 606; in Adam and Cassandra, 178; in ‘Beatrice Wyatt,’ 231; in Crampton Hodnet, 237–8, 241; in home front novel (unpublished), 274, 275; Henry Hoccleve’s sermon, 395; in Excellent Women, 403, 405, 408–9; in Jane and Prudence, 425, 426; in A Glass of Blessings, 447, 460, 461, 470; vicar and choirboy scandals, 461, 528; in No Fond Return of Love, 466–7; fornicating vicar scandals, 471; in An Unsuitable Attachment, 477–8, 481; declining influence of the vicar, 592; in A Few Green Leaves, 592, 593