Barbara Pym Finally Gets an English Heritage Blue Plaque

Thirty-two years after her death, the incomparable Barbara Pym has earned an English Heritage blue plaque at her birthplace in Oswestry, Shropshire. Yesterday's unveiling was witnessed not by hundreds or dozens, but by at least seven onlookers -- a fact that is pure Pym. (The moment would have been even more Pym if one of the people had no idea who she was, but had been caught by happenstance on her way home from trying a rather daring but mildly disappointing new flavor of tea at the slightly nicer home of a new friend who herself was rather daring and mildly disappointing.) The event was ignored by Britain's major newspapers which may explain how the local Shropshire Star could call Pym "forgotten" in its headline. The article's second sentence chides, "Miss Pym has a huge following in America where her books are acclaimed by critics." Among the best of her humorous, wise, and truthful novels of England's gentle people are Quartet in Autumn, A Few Green Leaves, An Unsuitable Attachment, No Fond Return of Love, and Excellent Women. A rather sharp young gay couple appear in her melancholy novel The Sweet Dove Died. I'll bow to Bob Smith's advice of where the first time Pym reader should begin, which is A Glass of Blessings.

Comments

[Cynthia]

Bob probably won't agree, but my favorite is "Excellent Women." I wonder what Miss Pym would have made of this honor.

[Bob Smith]

Excellent Women is brilliant but for the Thebes readers please start with A Glass Of Blessings. It has three of the most brilliant and hilarious gay characters ever to grace a novel. But my first Pym was Excellent Women and it made me read every one of her books.

[Paul Brownsey]

Funnily enough, A Glass of Blessings is the one I recommended to someone as their first Pym: I thought it encapsulated all the typical Pym concerns and attitudes perfectly.