INTRODUCED BY CLARE CHAMBERS 'The subtlest of her books . . . the sparkle on first
acquaintance has been succeeded by the deeper brilliance of established art' PHILIP LARKIN
Wilmet Forsyth is well dressed well looked after suitably husbanded good-looking and fairly
young - but very bored. Her sober husband Rodney who works at the Ministry is slightly balder
and fatter than he once was. Wilmet would like to think she has changed rather less. Her
interest wanders to the nearby church where she can neglect her comfortable household in the
more serious-minded company of three unmarried priests and of course Piers Longridge a man
of an unfathomably different character altogether. 'Barbara Pym is the rarest of treasures'
ANNE TYLER 'My favourite writer . . . I pick up her books with joy as though I were meeting
an old dear friend who comforts me extends my vision and makes me roar with laughter' JILLY
COOPER 'I am a huge fan of Barbara Pym' RICHARD OSMAN 'Her best [novels] are sheer delight and
all of them companionable. Quiet paradoxical funny and sad they have the iron in them of
permanence too' JOHN UPDIKE NEW YORKER
