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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.

When Barbara Pym died in 1980, she left a considerable amount of unpublished material.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.

©1987 The Beneficiaries of Barbara Pym (P)1987 Hachette Audio UK
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Critic reviews

"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)

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Interesting snippets of Pam

This beautifully read collection gave an insight into how Barbara Pym worked and it was fun to see characters popping up in lots of different stories and situations.

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