Civil To Strangers

INTRODUCED BY HAZEL HOLT

''I''m a huge fan of Barbara Pym'' Richard Osman

''I''d sooner read a new Barbara Pym than a new Jane Austen'' Philip Larkin

When Barbara Pym died in 1980, she left a considerable amount of unpublished material.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.

''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