Synopsis
‘Barbara Pym is one of my most favourite novelists. Few other writers have given me more laughter and more pleasure’ – Jilly Cooper, author of Rivals
‘Life is cruel and we do terrible things to each other.’
The lives of Humphrey and James Boyce, a seasoned antique dealer and his good-looking nephew, are changed for ever when the elegant Leonora Eyre glides into their bustling Bond Street salesroom, delicate as porcelain, cool as ice. An impassioned bid lands her a coveted book and two equally enthralled companions.
As the enigmatic Leonora navigates these relationships, others are drawn into her mysterious and intoxicating web, and a world of human complexities and simmering desires is exposed.
Pym brings her unique voice to this darkly comic exploration of love, loneliness and jealousy.
‘I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym’ – Richard Osman, author of The Thursday Murder Club
‘Faultless’ – The Guardian
‘Her characters are all meticulously impaled on the delicate pins of a wit that is as scrupulous as it is deadly’ – The Observer
‘A coldly funny book’ – The Sunday Telegraph
‘The critics who have recently insisted on Miss Pym’s too long neglected gifts have not been wrong’ – Financial Times
Details
Reviews
“The most underrated novelist of the century . . . The subtlest of her books — the sparkle on first acquaintance has been succeeded by the deeper brilliance of established art”Philip Larkin, poet and author of The Whitsun Weddings
“[Pym] makes me smile, laugh out loud, consider my own foibles and fantasies and, above all, suffer real regret when I reach the final page. Of how many authors can you honestly say that?”Mavis Cheek, author of Aunt Margaret's Lover
“A splendid, humorous writer”John Betjeman, Poet Laureate 1972-1984
“Barbara Pym has a sharp eye for the exact nuances of social behaviour”The Times, The Times
