{"product_id":"9780008322236_the-adventures-of-miss-barbara-pym-a-times-book-of-the-year-2021","title":"The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym: A Times Book of the Year 2021","description":"\u003ch2\u003e‘Captures both Barbara and her writing so miraculously’ JILLY COOPER\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003e\n          \u003cstrong\u003ePicked as a Book to Look Forward to in 2021 by the \u003cem\u003eGuardian\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Times\u003c\/em\u003e and the \u003cem\u003eObserver\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\n        \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\n          \u003cstrong\u003eA Radio 4 Book of the Week, April 2021\u003c\/strong\u003e\n        \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBarbara Pym became beloved as one of the wittiest novelists of the late twentieth century, revealing the inner workings of domestic life so brilliantly that her friend Philip Larkin announced her the era’s own Jane Austen. But who was Barbara Pym and why was the life of this English writer – one of the greatest chroniclers of the human heart – so defined by rejection, both in her writing and in love?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePym lived through extraordinary times. She attended Oxford in the thirties when women were the minority. She spent time in Nazi Germany, falling for a man who was close to Hitler. She made a career on the Home Front as a single working girl in London’s bedsit land. Through all of this, she wrote. Diaries, notes, letters, stories and more than a dozen novels – which as Byrne shows more often than not reflected the themes of Pym’s own experience: worlds of spinster sisters and academics in unrequited love, of powerful intimacies that pulled together seemingly humble lives.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePaula Byrne’s new biography is the first to make full use of Barbara Pym’s archive. Brimming with new extracts from Pym’s diaries, letters and novels, this book is a joyous introduction to a woman who was herself the very best of company.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eByrne brings Barbara Pym back to centre stage as one of the great English novelists: a generous, shrewdly perceptive writer and a brave woman, who only in the last years of her life was suddenly, resoundingly recognised for her genius.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eByrne's biography of Pym, the Sunday Times bestselling author, is a literary masterpiece that delves into the history of an English author who was a genius in her own right. It is a top pick for those interested in the lives of authors and their journey to recognition.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor fans of Lucy Worsley (Jane Austen at Home), Anne De Courcy (Snowdon), Olivia Laing (The Lonely City), Colm Tóibín (The Master), and Devoney Looser (The Making of Jane Austen).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Paula Byrne, Read by Antonia Beamish","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46889604219029,"sku":"9780008322236","price":49.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0484\/3175\/9509\/files\/9780008322236.jpg?v=1776888182","url":"https:\/\/harpercollins.com.au\/products\/9780008322236_the-adventures-of-miss-barbara-pym-a-times-book-of-the-year-2021","provider":"HarperCollins AU","version":"1.0","type":"link"}