Excellent Women

Mildred was quite capable of dealing with the stock situations of life. In fact her handling of births, marriages, deaths, jumble sales and garden fêtes ruined by the weather was masterly. It is the introduction of new and exotic neighbours that pulls her up short.

Barbara Pym is a rare and subtle writer. Unerring, acerbic, penetrating, she unrolls with deceptive gentleness a world that is still part of the English social scene.