Book description
'It was odd that Harriet should always have been so fond of curates.
They were so immature and always made the same kind of conversation. Now
the Archdeacon was altogether different . . . ' Together yet alone, the
Misses Bede occupy the central crossroads of parish life. Harriet,
plump, elegant and jolly, likes nothing better than to make a fuss of
new curates, secure in the knowledge that elderly Italian Count Ricardo
Bianco will propose to her yet again this year. Belinda, meanwhile has
harboured sober feelings of devotion towards Archdeacon Hochleve for
thirty years. Then into their quiet, comfortable lives comes a famous
librarian, Nathaniel Mold, and a bishop from Africa, Theodore Grote -
who each take to calling on the sisters for rather more unsettling
reasons. Barbara Pym (1913-80) was born in Shropshire and educated at
St Hilda's College, Oxford. When in 1977 the TLS asked critics to name
the most underrated authors of the past 75 years, only one was named
twice (by Philip Larkin and Lord David Cecil): Barbara Pym.
