A Few Words About Barbara Pym

Few writers are as quotable as Barbara Pym, twice named in the Times Literary Supplement, as "the most underrated novelist of the century" (by Philip Larkin and Lord David Cecil). Barbara Pym's novels spanned the better part of the last half century, and captured a very specific segment of society, that of the genteel middle-class English gentlewoman, most likely unmarried and in her middle years. Ms. Pym was nothing if not charming about many subjects, one of her favorites being the drinking of tea. To wit: "I was so astonished that I could think of nothing to say, but wondered irrelevantly if I was to be caught with a teapot in my hand on every dramatic occasion" and "Perhaps there can be too much making of cups of tea, I thought as I watched Miss Statham filling the heavy teapot. Did we really need a cup of tea? I even said as much to Miss Statham and she looked at me with a hurt, almost angry look, 'do we need tea? she  echoed. 'But Miss Lathbury...' She sounded puzzled and distressed and I began to realize that my question had struck at something deep and fundamental. It was the kind of question that starts a landslide in the mind. I mumbled something about making a joke and that of course one needs tea always, at every hour of the day or night." For more about Barbara Pym, see here.