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Civil To Strangers

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Civil To Strangers

By: Barbara Pym, Hazel Holt - introduction
Narrated by: Deryn Edwards
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Summary
INTRODUCED BY HAZEL HOLT

'I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym' Richard Osman

'I'd sooner read a new Barbara Pym than a new Jane Austen' Philip Larkin

When Barbara Pym died in 1980, she left a considerable amount of unpublished material. This volume contains an early novel, Civil to Strangers, three novellas and an autobiographical essay, 'Finding a Voice', Pym's only written comment on her writing career.

In Civil to Strangers, the lives of a young couple, Cassandra Marsh-Gibbon and her self-absorbed writer husband Adam, are thrown into upheaval when a mysterious Hungarian arrives in their village.

'A sublime social comedy . . . It exists inside the Pym Eden of safety, silliness and a kind of subdued hilarity. Look out for one of her best curates - the starchy, spinster-dodging Mr Paladin - and a typically deliciously insensitive vicar' KATE SAUNDERS, THE TIMES

'Brilliant, hilarious, poignant and so very, very English' TIME©1987 The Beneficiaries of Barbara Pym
Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Women's Fiction Classics Comedy Marriage

Critic Reviews

I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym (Richard Osman)
I'd sooner read a new Barbara Pym than a new Jane Austen (Philip Larkin)
A sublime social comedy . . . It exists inside the Pym Eden of safety, silliness and a kind of subdued hilarity. Look out for one of her best curates - the starchy, spinster-dodging Mr Paladin - and a typically deliciously insensitive vicar (KATE SAUNDERS)
Brilliant, hilarious, poignant and so very, very English
Barbara Pym is the rarest of treasures; she reminds us of the heartbreaking silliness of everyday life (ANNE TYLER)
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