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Civil to Strangers

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About this listen

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When Barbara Pym died in 1980, she left a considerable amount of unpublished material.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 Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Women's Fiction Classics Comedy Marriage

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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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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