Barbara Pym centenary: a reading event throughout 2013

As many of you will be aware who regularly read this blog – the Librarything Virago group have been doing a year of Elizabeth Taylor reading in celebration of her centenary in July 2012. This wonderful reading event has been ably hosted by Laura. Now the Elizabeth Taylor readalong has all but finished and the Librarything members have had a great time, and I for one (and I’m sure I’m not alone) will miss it enormously. So we have been looking for another writer “to do” in 2013. As luck would have it Barbara Pym (some of whose novels have been published by Virago) was born in June 1913. So we have ourselves another centenary. However I am not going to be doing a full hosting of this event here, I don’t feel I can commit to anything too big, but I love Barbara Pym and I wanted to help promote this great reading opportunity. I will of course review all Pym novels I read here, in the same way as I review everything else I read, and no doubt I will reference the on-going project in those posts. So this post is merely serving as an introduction, to highlight the project for anyone else who might want to join in with us.
We have elected to read the books in publication order, which is not necessarily the order the books were written – it seemed less complicated. I have not actually read all Barbara Pym’s novels, but I have read 10 of the 13 published novels. Yes, thirteen – and thirteen into twelve doesn’t go easily. So I am suggesting the following schedule – with two books during June – the month of Barbara Pym’s centenary. This schedule will require me to do a bit of book buying as I don’t even have copies of all the books I have read. So at some point in the New Year, I will be looking out for the few I don’t have. I can remember really enjoying Excellent Women, Jane and Prudence and No Fond Return of Love particularly, but I am looking forward to reading or re-reading all of them. Luckily the first book we will be reading Some Tame Gazelle, fits into my month of re-reading too.

• January 2013 Some Tame Gazelle (1950)
• February 2013 Excellent Women (1952)
• March 2013 Jane and Prudence (1953)
• April 2013Less than Angels (1955)
• May 2013 A Glass of Blessings (1958)
• June 2013 No Fond Return of Love (1961)
• June 2013Quartet in Autumn (1977)
• July 2013The Sweet Dove Died (1978)
• August 2013 A Few Green Leaves (1980)
• September 2013Crampton Hodnet (completed circa 1940, published 1985)
• October 2013 An Unsuitable Attachment (written 1963; published posthumously, 1982)
• November 2013 An Academic Question (written 1970-72; published 1986)
• December 2013 Civil to Strangers (written 1936; published posthumously, 1989)

So if you have not read any Barbara Pym before, and would like to try one, what can you expect?
Barbara Pym novels are sort of social comedies, usually set in small middle class communities; there are some quite deeper undercurrents in her novels however, although they are very English, her canvases like those of Jane Austen and Elizabeth Taylor are fairly small. North Oxford features strongly in her novels as does London. Barbara Pym examines communities and the relationships between men and women; she particularly seems to examine unrequited love. Her observations of people and their little foibles are quite wry, and delightfully amusing. Anglican Church communities figure largely in her novels as do academics such as anthropologists – Barbara Pym herself worked for some time at the International African Institute, before retiring to Oxfordshire to live with her sister Hilary. Barbara Pym never married, although she did have several love affairs. Her first published novel came in 1950 with Some Tame Gazelle. Between 1963 and 1977 despite her former popularity Barbara Pym found she was unable to get her work published, as her novels were by this time considered old fashioned. Following a campaign led by Lord David Cecil and Philip Larkin her novel Quartet in Autumn was published, re-launching her career and bringing Barbara Pym to a whole new audience. Barbara Pym died of cancer in 1980. Following her death some of her early previously unpublished work was also published.
I have been today made aware of a Barbara Pym centenary conference taking place in July. I certainly hope to be there, as I know Liz does. The Elizabeth Taylor centenary day in Reading last April – was one of the highlights of 2012 for me.