Book description
Mildred Lathbury is one of those 'excellent women' who is often taken
for granted. She is a godsend, 'capable of dealing with most of the
stock situations of life - birth, marriage, death, the successful jumble
sales, the garden fete spoilt by bad weather'. As such, she often gets
herself embroiled in other people's lives - especially those of her
glamorous new neighbours, the Napiers, whose marriage seems to be on the
rocks. One cannot take sides in these matters, though it is tricky,
especially as Mildred, teetering on the edge of spinsterhood, has a soft
spot for dashing young Rockingham Napier. This is Barbara Pym's world at
its funniest and most touching. 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. Her novels are characterised by what Anne Tyler has called
'the heartbreaking silliness of everyday life'.
