I bought this book at a recent Barbara Pym event at the new Library of Birmingham – the author of this book had produced a dramatised reading of Barbara Pym’s novel ‘An Unsuitable Attachment’ which was read by a group of drama students. I was disappointed that we didn’t get to hear from Yvonne Cocking herself, but was happy to buy her book – which I thought would be a good way of completing my yearlong centenary reading of Barbara Pym’s novels.
As well as reading Barbara Pym’s novels (most of which have been re-reads in fact) this year – I also read A Very Private Eye – the letters and Diaries of Barbara Pym, and re-read A lot to Ask, the biography written by Barbara Pym’s friend Hazel Holt. Both those books provide a lot of excellent background reading for Pym fans – and I wasn’t sure if this book could possibly add all that much.
“I was introduced to all the staff, including Barbara Pym, the assistant editor of the journal Africa, who, other colleagues told me, had had six novels published, but whose type of book was now out of favour. I started reading the novels, but, I’m afraid like so many young people in the 1960’s, I did not find them very exciting”
Barbara in the Bodleian is made up of a collection of essays by Yvonne Cocking an archivist of the Barbara Pym society. She actually knew Barbara Pym, and in fact worked alongside her at the International African Institute. The first essay – about the International African Institute was really quite interesting, as I have often wanted a clearer idea of what the place where Barbara Pym worked for so long might have been like. The majority of the essays seem to have been presented before as papers to annual general meetings and conferences of the Barbara Pym society. These essays are based upon Yvonne Cocking’s many years of research in the Pym archives in the Bodleian library. They include extracts of letters, diaries and the notes Barbara Pym kept in her notebooks. By piecing together these excerpts Yvonne Cocking charts the development of the nine novels which were published during Barbara Pym’s lifetime – the revisions she made, and the reactions that she received from friends, fans and literary critics.
We also get to see Barbara Pym in Germany in the 1930’s when she fell in love with a handsome young SS officer Friedbert Gluck. This was a very interesting essay for me – for despite having read ‘A lot to Ask’ twice – I had forgotten about this brief love affair – and Friedbert gets much less mention in ‘A very Private Eye’ – Barbara Pym – Yvonne Cocking suggests was quite likely embarrassed in later years by this relationship. I was also amused by how Barbara Pym appears to have come quite close to be being sued by Marks and Spencers – when they objected to a reference in Jane and Prudence – a reference that was later supposed to have been removed – but in fact it appears it never was.
Overall however I can’t really say I particularly enjoyed this book in the way I had expected to. Pages of glowing reviews and fan letters punctuated by some of surprising spite became fairly tedious – and on the whole the book wasn’t really very revelatory at all. Many of Barbara Pym’s notes on her work show a thought process that might be of some interest to some, but these are notes and were never meant for publication, and for me there was less interest in them than I had expected. I enjoyed reading dear Elizabeth Taylor’s letter to Barbara Pym, and some of those fan letters from ordinary people were really lovely – maybe there were just too many for me.
“I write feeling a little silly for so doing, to say how much I enjoyed your book No Fond Return of Love. I am in the middle of a spell of feeling particularly overworked and underappreciated and didn’t feel to have a laugh left in me, when, on Saturday night I started to read your book in bed” ( from a reader in Hampstead)
Maybe this book would appeal more to someone undertaking a particularly detailed study of Pym’s work. So aside from a couple of the essays that I have already mentioned, which did lift my interest somewhat – I did sort of plod through this book – dipping in and out of it over the period of nearly a week. This may in part be because I have had a particular problem with reading non-fiction this year – I suspect there will be others who would be fascinated by the things which I began to get bogged down by.
I’m reading this at the moment, but have only just started, so I’m about to start the Germany chapter. I’ll report back as to what I thought of the later chapters in my review. I know I’ve spent quite some time working with archives and bits and bobs, so might find an interest from that aspect …
I expect you will find it very interesting.
Sounds as if the title is a little misleading, Ali, as you certainly don’t seem to have read any revelations there! It’s annoying when a book doesn’t quite meet your expectations, but we are all individuals I suppose! Maybe reading a Pym novel will compensate!
I am loving Civil to Strangers.
I couldn’t decide if I wanted to buy this until I heard more about it. Thanks for making up my mind. I read A Very Private Eye so long ago that when I saw a copy recently, I bought it to reread.
Well I wouldn’t want to put you off completely but I don’t really think it’s essential reading.
Thanks Ali, as you may remember I can’t find a source of this book in Oz, so it was great to read your detailed review, has calmed my frustration thank you very much!
I’m glad I’ve done that.
This does sound a little disappointing, and certainly not what the title promised. Maybe it would work better as a book on a shelf to be dipped into from time to time, rather than a book to read from cover to cover.
Yes possibly.
I’m thinking that, now I’m in the chapters about the books, it would work well at individual sessions once or twice a year, but is a bit much one after the other. A few dodgy revelations in the German chapter, too … ! So I suppose there ARE revelations of a sort …
A few minor ones maybe.
The premise sounds marvellous, and it’s a real shame that it didn’t live up to your expectations.