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
