109. Barbara Pym - Excellent Women
Joining John and Andy for this first episode in our new season of the podcast are Becky Brown and Norah Perkins, the joint custodians of the Curtis Brown Heritage list of literary estates, where they look after the works and legacies of over 150 writers including Iris Murdoch, Stella Gibbons, Douglas Adams, Elizabeth Bowen, Gerald and Lawrence Durrell, Margaret Kennedy and Laurie Lee. They have been friends for seven years and colleagues for three. Becky edits anthologies in her spare time with the next one, Classic Cat Stories, coming out from Macmillan later this year. Norah divides her spare time between the garden and the (very slow) restoration of a Victorian printing press.
The book they have chosen to discuss is one that many Backlisted listeners will be delighted by: Excellent Women by Barbara Pym, first published in 1952 by Jonathan Cape, and reissued as a Virago Modern Classic in 2009. Also in this episode John finds the matter of ancient myth can be transformed into resonant contemporary poetry in the right hands - those of Mathew Francis in this case, in his new version of The Mabinogi (Faber). And Andy tests our guests’ professional mettle by getting them to pitch some books that believe deserve closer attention from contemporary readers.
Books mentioned:
Barbara Pym - Excellent Women; Some Tame Gazelle; No Fond Return of Love; Crampton Hodnet; Quartet in Autumn; A Very Private Eye: An Autobiography in Diaries & Letters
Hazel Holt - A Lot to Ask: A Life of Barbara Pym
Mathew Francis - The Mabinogi
Alan Garner - The Owl Service
Patrick Hamilton - Monday Morning; Craven House
Margert Kennedy - Troy Chimneys
Pamela Frankel - A Wreath for the Enemy
Barry England - Figures in the Landscape
Celia Dale - A Helping Hand
Philips Larkin - Selected Letters
Other links:
Easy Rider (YouTube)
Backlisted on The Tortoise & the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins
Backlisted on Lost Horizon by James Hilton
Backlisted on Absolute Beginners by Colin MacInnes
Barbara Pym on Desert Island Discs (August 1978)
Miss Pym’s Day Out on YouTube
Reputations Revisted in the TLS (1977)
Backlisted on Maiden Voyage by Denton Welch