The Barbara Pym Society Archives

A Selection of Writings about Barbara and the Barbara Pym Society

Compiled by Yvonne Cocking, October 2007

Original Material not published in ‘Green Leaves’

Anon.  Cottage blue plaque marks novelist’s life.  Oxford Times, 8^th September 2006
Ardener, Edwin.  My friend Miss Pym.  Sunday Telegraph, 6^th July 1986.
Batchelor, Judy.  Not-quite-indexers in fiction (and non-fiction).  The Indexer, 14(4), October 1985
Bell, Hazel K.  Indexers in fiction.  The Indexer, 13(1), April 1982, p.26
Bell, Hazel K.  Indexers in fiction.  The Indexer, 13(3), April 1983, p.198
Bell, Hazel K.  Indexing (and) Barbara Pym.  The Open Book, 5(1), April 2004, 5-8
Bell, Hazel K.  Novelist as scholarly editor, mid twentieth century. Journal of Scholarly Publishing, 37(2), January 2006, 119-130
Bell, Hazel K.  Philip Larkin and Barbara Pym: a meeting of Societies.  The Open Book, 6(1), April 2005, 6-7
Bell, Hazel K.  ‘Thankless task’ accomplished for Pym.  The Indexer, 14(3) April 1985, p189
Biber, Eleonore.  The modern Anglo-Catholic novel: aspects of Anglo-Catholicism as reflected in the novels of Barbara Pym and A.N. Wilson.  Ph.D. thesis, Vienna.  (Abstract in German).  With acknowledgments and covering letter to Eileen.
Biber, Eleonore.  The modern Anglo-Catholic novel: aspects of Anglo-Catholicism as reflected in the novels of Barbara Pym and A.N. Wilson.  Ph.D. thesis, Vienna.   Abstract in English (3pp.) and Bibliography (29pp.)
Bradham, Margaret C.  Barbara Pym’s women.  World Literature Today (Literary Quarterly of the University of Oklahoma), 61(1), Winter 1987, 31-37
Byatt, A.S.  Barbara Pym.  In Passions of the Mind: selected writings, by A.S. Byatt.  London: Chatto & Windus, 1991, pp.266-270 
Campbell, Jenny.  ‘She would sit in the library having passionate thoughts about the colour of young men’s socks.’  Sunday Times, 1986.
Coulton, Edith.  Clergy wives today. [Two versions: 7 typed A4 pages and 30 typed A5 pages].  A talk given to the Barbara Pym Society, 14^th September 1996.
Coulton, Edith.  The vicar’s wife: clergy wives in the 1990s.  Another version of the above. [8 typed A5 pages].
Everett, Barbara.  Barbara Pym and Philip Larkin: a literary friendship.  Folio Magazine, Autumn 2005, 16-20
Everett, Barbara.  Larkin and the doomsters: walking “down life’s sunless hill” with Hardy and Barbara Pym.     Times Literary Supplement, no. 5331, 3^rd June 2005, pp.11-13.  See also cover.  Also, card from BE to Eileen thanking her for an invitation to speak at the Pym/Larkin meeting.
Ezell, Margaret J.M.  “What shall we do with our old maids”: Barbara Pym and the “Woman Question”.  International Journal of Women’s Studies, 7, 19??, 450-465
Francis, John.  Food in fiction: a dash of Pym.  Convivium, Winter, 1993, 105-112.
Francis, John.  Gardens in fiction: the gardens of Barbara Pym.  Hortus, 13, 1990, pp.84-89
Gray, Richard.  Classic cafes: the Rendez-Vous, Maddox Street, W1. Web Site article.
The author regrets the loss of ‘another submerged landmark café…its clientele of solitary office workers having lunch instantly transported me back to the 1950s London described in the novels of Barbara Pym’.  He quotes from Quartet in Autumn, gives a brief biography attributed to the Barbara Pym Society, and reproduces in colour the cover of Quartet by Pat Fogarty.
Holt, Hazel.  The detective trail.  Read by Hilary Walton.  [Where and when?]
Holt, Hazel.  No thankless task: Barbara Pym as indexer.  The Indexer, 15(4) October 1987, 236-237
Joyce, Robin.  Barbara Pym: a novelist in the field.  Paper given at the BPS Conference, Oxford, 2003
Joyce, Robin.  Troublesome women: our validation in the novels of Barbara Pym, Fay Weldon and Zoe Fairbairns.  Paper given at the BPS Conference, Oxford, 2001
Kitson, Jill.  Writer for our times.  The Age Monthly Review, 1(4), August 1981.
Lenckos, Frauke E. and Miller, Ellen J.  All This Reading: the literary world of Barbara Pym, ed. Farleigh Dickinson University Press,
Lenckos, Frauke.  Unsuitable attachments, fortunate alliances: reading romance and redemption in Barbara Pym’s novels.
Lisle, Nicola.  ‘A splendid humorous writer’.  Oxfordshire Limited Edition, no 237, October 2006, 16-18 (supplement to Oxford Times, 6^th October 2006).
The author delves in to the life of writer Barbara Pym, who was recently honoured with Oxfordshire’s newest Blue Plaque.
McErlain, Patricia.  Tea, irony and excellence in the novels of Barbara Pym.  [2004]
McInnes, Judy B.  Communal rites: tea, wine and Milton in Barbara Pym’s novels.  Renaissance, 48, Summer 1996, pp279-295;  In No Soft Incense: Barbara Pym and the Church, ed. Hazel K. Bell.  2004, pp.36-50.
Myers, Gabriel.  Once the stronger sex: good men in Pym novels and Tom Hanks films.
Paper given at the Barbara Pym Society North American Conference, 27-28 March 2004.
Osborne, Victor.  Miss Pym, the not so prim.  Daily Telegraph, 7^th June 2003.
Raz, Orna.  Anglo-Catholic attitudes.
Raz, Orna.  Dandies, acolytes and teddy boys: ambiguous treatment of male sexuality in Barbara Pym’s novels of the 1950s.  Partial Answers, 4(1), 2006, 107-128
Raz, Orna.  Domestic life in Pym’s novels.
Raz, Orna.  From Greenland’s Icy Mountains: the church and the West Indian Immigrants in An Unsuitable Attachment.  Notes to accompany her paper given at the Oxford conference in September 2005
Raz, Orna.  Reconstructing the fourth wall: the social dimension in the novels of Barbara Pym, 1949-1963.  Ph.D. Thesis, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.  September 2005
Rossen, Janice.  The Victorian novel in modern dress: from Elizabeth Bowen to Hilary Mantel.
Schofield, Mary Anne, and Saar, Doreen Alvarez (eds)  The Barbara Pym Newsletter, 1-6 (2 issues per volume), June 1986-March 1992.
Shell, Alison.  Barbara Pym and ordinary Oxford.  St. Hilda’s Report and Chronicle, 1993, 36-39.
Shell, Alison.  Duet in spring.  Oxford Today, Spring 1993, 14-16
Smith, Judy Pollard. [Paper offered by email to Green Leaves, May 2005]
Smith, Robert.  ‘Always sincere, not always serious’: Robert Liddell and Barbara Pym.  Paper read at the Barbara Pym Literary Weekend, 20-22 August 1993.
Tyler, Anne.  Foreword.  In Excellent Women, Jane and Prudence, An Unsuitable Attachment, by Barbara Pym.  New York: Dutton, 1984.
Updike, John.  Lem and Pym, Stead and Jones.  In Hugging the Shore: essays and criticism, by John Updike.  New York: Knopf, 1983, pp516-525
Walton, Hilary.  The Crampton Family.  Paper read at the Barbara Pym Literary Weekend, 20-22 August 1993 
White, Diane.  Capturing the spirit of Pym.  Boston Globe, 4^th March, 2000


Reviews of her books, and of books about her

Alliance of Literary Societies.  Review of All This Reading: the literary world of Barbara Pym, ed. Frauke E.Lenckos and Ellen J. Miller.  Associated University Presses, 2003.  ALS Newsletter, (6), Summer 2003
American Society of Indexers.  Indexer heroines: Barbara Pym, No Fond Return of Love.  American Society of Indexers, n.d.
Anon.  Review of A Lot to Ask: a Life of Barbara Pym, by Hazel Holt.  Sunday Times. 9^th February 1992.
Anon.(EE)  Review of Some Tame Gazelle, Excellent Women and A Few Green Leaves, by Barbara Pym.
Bakewell, Ken.  Review of No Soft Incense: Barbara Pym and the Church, ed. Hazel K. Bell.  Christian Librarian, No. 31, Winter 2005, 43-45.
Bell, Hazel K. Review of The Life and Work of Barbara Pym, ed. Dale Salwak.  The Indexer, 15(4), October 1987.
Cunningham, Valentine.  A world of ordinary gentlefolk [review of An Unsuitable Attachment, and three other writers’ novels.]  Observer, n.d.
Fenton, James.  The passionate spinster who found humour.  [Review of A Very Private Eye].  Times, 19^th July 1984
Fisher, Deborah.  Review of No Soft Incense: Barbara Pym and the Church, ed. Hazel K. Bell.  From Tregolwyn Book Reviews on the Internet.
Gordon, Cecilia.  No Fond Return of Love.  The Indexer, 12(2) October 1980, 108-109
Mackay, Shena.  Passport to Pymdom.  Review of A Mind at Ease: Barbara Pym and her novels, by Robert Liddell.  London: Peter Owen, 1989.  {Photocopy of newspaper cutting, no source.]
Marsh, Pamela.  Pym’s world – the sweetness has a touch of lemon.  Review of Civil to Strangers and Other Writings.  Christian Science Monitor, 10 May 1988.  1p.
Munson, Norma.  Check out a literary jewel.  ‘Ten Second Review’ of No Soft Incense: Barbara Pym and the Church, ed. Hazel K. Bell.  Rockford Register Star, 27 August 2005.
Mullen, Alexandra.  Miss Pym disposes: review of No Soft Incense: Barbara Pym and the Church, ed. Hazel K. Bell.  The New Criterion, May 2005, pp 85-86.
Symondson, A.  A glass of Pym: review of No Soft Incense: Barbara Pym and the Church, ed. Hazel K. Bell.  The Catholic Herald, 17^th June 2005, p 13.
Wall, Stephen.  Being splendid.  [Review of Civil to Strangers, The Pleasure of Miss Pym, by Charles Burkhart, The World of Barbara Pym, by Janice Rossen, and The Life and Work of Barbara Pym, ed. Dale Salwak.]  London Review of Books, 3^rd March 1988.
Wilson, A.N.  Humour and holiness: review of No Soft Incense: Barbara Pym and the Church, ed. Hazel K. Bell.  The Tablet, 21 May 2005.

 
Material Relating to The Barbara Pym Society, its Meetings, Speakers, and Members

Anon.  Indexers and indexes.  [Review of Indexers and indexing in fact and fiction, by Hazel K. Bell].  Bulletin of the Angela Thirkell Society North American Branch, No. 52, Summer 2002, p.28.
Bayley, John.  A life of mild sexual fantasy [Review of The Philip Larkin I knew, by Maeve Brennan].  Times Literary Supplement, 16^th August 2002
Bell, Hazel K.  From herbals to Hotbot: the development of journal indexing.  Learned Publishing, 14(2) April 2001, 123-129.  (Contains section about BP as indexer, entitled Card Indexer at Work)
Bell, Hazel K.  Literary wastes of shame.  The Open Book, 4(1), April 2003, 16-17.
Bell, Hazel K.  The pleasures and pitfalls of reading groups.  Logos, 12(4), 2001, 203-209.
Bell, Hazel K.  A Pymian occasion.  Review of the 1986 Conference at Oxford.  The Indexer, 15, 1986, p.66
Bennett, Nicholas (Organiser).  Knitting Socks for the Curate: an introduction to the novels of Barbara Pym.  Programme for a Barbara Pym Day at Lincoln Cathedral Library, Saturday 9^th March 2002.
Charles, Kate.  The church is the perfect backdrop for crime novels.  Church Times (?) Back Page Interview with Rachel Harden
Hamilton-Paterson, James.  James Hale [Obituary].  The Independent, 20^th September 2003.  [James Hale was for a very brief time before his death the agent for Barbara Pym’s work.]
Herrick, Scott.  Maschler pudding. [Letter]  London Review of Books, 27(11), 2^nd June 2005, p.4.
Jennings, Charles.  Au revoir, Provence: Tom Maschler has poured money into his French home of the past 17 years.  So why leave now?  Daily Telegraph (Property Section), 4^th June 2005, pp.9-10
Myers, Amy.  First catch your turtle: recipes from the past.  2pp.  [Amy Myers gave a paper Food and the Novel at the conference on “Barbara a la Mode”, January 1998]
Snively, Julie.  Trans-Atlantic friendship built on love of literature [Hazel Bell, Norma Munson and Teen Haskell on Angela Thirkell and Barbara Pym].  Rockford Register Star, 8^th March 2002

 
Dramatisations

All Saints’Arts Centre, London, N20.  No Fond Return of Love: the novel by Barbara Pym adapted for the stage and presented at All Saints’ by kind permission of Jonathan Cape Ltd.  Friday, Saturday & Sunday, 6^th, 7^th & 8^th March [1998] at 8pm.  This is a revised version of the play presented at All Saints’ in 1988 & at the Man in the Moon in Chelsea in 1994.   Programme, Scenes, the Cast, and the Adaptor’s note, but not the script.
Anon.  Conference drama [review of Tristram Powell’s production of No Fond Return of Love performed at the Barbara Pym Society Conference, St. Hilda’s College, Oxford  in August 1993].  The Indexer, 19(1), April 1994, p.36
Barnard, Peter.  Radio Choice.  No Fond Return of Love [Dramatised in four parts at 11.30 am on Mondays, 14, 21 and 28^th March, and 4^th April 2000.]  Radio Times listing.
Bell, Hazel K.  Dramatic indexing [review of Tristram Powell’s production of No Fond Return of Love performed at the Barbara Pym Conference, St. Hilda’s College, Oxford  in August 1993].  Sidelights: Newsletter of the Society of Indexers, Winter 1997, p.7
Bennett, Carol.  Crampton Hodnet: a play adapted from the novel, and read at Knitting Socks for the Curate: an introduction to the novels of Barbara Pym.  A Barbara Pym Day at Lincoln Cathedral Library, Saturday 9^th March 2002.  Also performed at the Barbara Pym Conference, Harvard Law School, on 3^rd April 2005 by members of the Society.
BBC.  A note about The World of Barbara Pym, broadcast on Radio 4 at 4.0 pm.  Radio Times?  Date?
Cocking, Yvonne. Mothers and Fathers: a play adapted from the short story (1936) by Barbara Pym, read by members of the Society at the Oxford conference in September 2004.  Includes cast list and photo.
Cocking, Yvonne.  Parrots’ Eggs; an adaptation of Barbara Pym’s radio play, rejected by the BBC, read by Society members at the Oxford conference in August 2003.  Includes cast list and photos.
Cocking, Yvonne.  The Pilgrimage, adapted from Barbara Pym’s early short story, and read by members of the Society at the Oxford conference in September 2002.  Includes photo of the cast.
Cocking, Yvonne and Villatoro, Bridget.  The Sweet Dove Died, a play abridged and adapted from the novel (1978) by Barbara Pym, and read by visiting actors from the Guildford School of Acting and members of the Society at the Oxford conference in August 2007.  Includes cast list.
Fawcett, Amanda.  Adaptation of An Unsuitable Attachment, performed by students (past and present) of the Guildford School of Acting, at the Oxford conference in September 2005.  Cast list and Scenes.
Greaves, William.  Bazaar encounter [Review of the Bookmark programme, Miss Pym’s Day Out.]  Radio Times, 15-21 February 1992.  Also a brief article about Barbara, and the cast of the play.-
Radio Times.  Miss Pym’s Day Out: drama blending fiction and reality.  Bookmark, Wednesday, BBC2, 8.10 pm.  Date?  (Extract from Radio Times, with cast list and a brief summary of BP’s life and work.)
Theatre Maketa.  No Fond Return of Love by Barbara Pym, directed by Patricia Doyle.  Man in the Moon Theatre, 1994.  [Web site notice with photograph of Leda Hodgson (Dulcie) and Harriet Keevil (Viola)].

 
Obituaries and Memorials

        Of Barbara

Anon.  Miss Barbara Pym: novelist of distinctive qualities.  The Times, 14^th January, 1980
Barton, Michael.  About Barbara Pym.  (Shows Commemorative plaque in Finstock church).  [From an American paper?]
Cecil, David.  Obituary of Barbara Pym.  Royal Society of Literature Reports for 1979-80 and 1980-81, 25-26.
Jarvis, William.  Address given by the Rev William Jarvis on the occasion of the dedication of a memorial plaque and lectern to Barbara Pym in Finstock Church, Oxford, on the 3^rd June 1984, the Sunday after Ascension Day.  5pp.
King, Francis.  Barbara Pym, a lesson to writers.  Sunday Telegraph, 13^th January 1980
Kirk-Greene, A.H.M.  Barbara Pym 1913-1980.  Africa, 50, 1980, 94-95
Mayoss, Aidan.  The antidote. CR (Quarterly Review of the Community of the Resurrection), no. 239, 1985, 6-9.  Contains the following reference to BP:
‘Barbara Pym died only a few years ago; recently her letters and diaries have appeared giving a most interesting portrait of one who was a very private person.  After early recognition, for many years she pursued a very humdrum job and no publisher was interested in her outwardly rather gently novels.  She was unhappy too in her emotional life; the War too had come and gone and we all bear its scars, but all the time she continued with the very undemonstrative practice of her religion – she remained steadfast, and at the end recognition came to her, with its attendant fame, after the fatal cancer had already struck.’
Paflin, Glyn.  Remembering Miss Pym [report on the requiem mass, 15^th January 2005].  Church Times, 4 February 2005, p 12.
Phelps, Gilbert.  Circles (in memory of Barbara Pym: died 12/1/80).  Typewritten poem, 3 stanzas of 14 lines each.
Phelps, Kay.  Barbara.  A poem written in Hilary’s hand, and a typed copy.
3 stanzas of 3 lines each.  February 1980
Pym, Barbara.  Solemn requiem and thanksgiving mass, January 15^th 2005 at the Parish Church of Saint Alban the Martyr, Holborn.  Order of Service.

 
        Of Others connected to Barbara or the Society

 
Correspondence

Letter [copy] addressed from Barn Cottage, 22^nd April 1979, to Denys Val Baker, refusing a short story for his proposed collection of women’s writing.  The original bought by member Paul Jackson in a second hand bookshop in 2002.
Handwritten letter dated 6^th June 1978 from BP to Mrs. Marion Dale.  Letter from Mrs Dale, dated 1^st October 2006, enclosing this letter, and another from her (3^rd March 2007) thanking YC who had written telling her about the Barbara Pym Society.

 
Miscellaneous

Barbara Pym: her life and work.  A conference at St. Hilda’s College, Oxford, 4-5 July 1986.  List of Guests and Members of the conference, and Dinner menu.
Blackwell’s Rare Books.  List of rare books in the sale of Barn Cottage books held in Blackwell’s Second Hand Department on 2^nd September 2005.
Parsons, Hester C.  British Red Cross Society Nursing Manual, No.2.  5^th ed.  London etc.: Cassell & Co, 1939.  [Barbara’s copy, signed and dated 28^th June 1939]
Ross, Louise [Bookseller].  A miscellany (of some of the books she bought in 1995).  Under General Literature, items 170 to 177 are books by Barbara Pym.
St. Hilda’s College Register, 1893-1944.  Oxford, University Press, 1948.  154pp.