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A Lot To Ask: A Life of Barbara Pym
This official biography of Barbara Pym, the writer, describes her upbringing in Oswestry and her life in Oxford. The author talks about the successes as well as the dark years in the writer's life when she was unpublished.
308 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
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232 people want to read
About the author
Hazel Holt
63 books72 followersHazel Holt is a British novelist. She studied at King Edward VI High School for Girls in Birmingham, England, and then Newnham College, Cambridge. She went on to work at the International African Institute in London, where she became acquainted with the novelist Barbara Pym, whose biography she later wrote. She also finished one of Pym's novels after Pym died.
Holt wrote her first novel in her sixties, and is a leading crime novelist. She is best known for her "Sheila Malory" series. Her son is the novelist Tom Holt.
Holt wrote her first novel in her sixties, and is a leading crime novelist. She is best known for her "Sheila Malory" series. Her son is the novelist Tom Holt.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
April 24, 2020
After Barbara Pym's death, American author Anne Tyler wrote: 'What do people turn to when they've finished Barbara Pym? The answer is easy: they turn back to Barbara Pym.' Although I have not quite completed her oeuvre, I very much appreciate this perspective; Pym's novels have so much to offer, and her strength of place and character, as well as her delicious wit, are worth revisiting over and over again.
I realised some months ago that there are many authors whose work I have greatly enjoyed, but whom I know very little about as individuals. Trying to remedy that, I requested a copy of Hazel Holt's biography A Lot to Ask: A Life of Barbara Pym from my local library, and settled down with it on a peaceful afternoon.
In this biography, says the blurb, '... we come to know a person whose humour and sharp observation were uniquely combined with a compassionate acceptance of human nature - qualities that made her such an outstanding novelist.' It is promised that Pym 'emerges from these pages as an entertaining companion with an insatiable curiosity and an unquenchable delight in the eccentricities of her fellows.'
Holt was a good friend to Pym, and also acted as her literary executor, before passing away in 2015. In her introduction, Holt writes: 'It seemed right... to try to put Barbara into her own setting, to define the manners and mores of the social scene around her (one day her novels will be a rich source for social historians), to describe her friends and colleagues, and to show how her books were moulded by her life, as well as the other way around.' The book includes many entries from Pym's private papers, as well as a lot of her correspondence; this is particularly true in the case of the friendship between herself and poet Philip Larkin. Even in the briefest correspondence, Pym writes beautifully and compassionately to her intended.
Rather than focus entirely on Pym, Holt gives some of the rather colourful history of her parents and grandparents. Pym's own childhood, in a small market town in Shropshire, was 'comfortable and conventional', quite by contrast to the life of her illegitimate father, and filled with 'a great deal of quiet affection'. When she moved to Oxford to study English Literature at University, however, Pym became somewhat more alive. She kept a diary, which she regularly filled with 'sightings' of men whom she liked, and certainly had a great deal of adventures with them. Whilst at University, Pym occasionally attended Labour Party meetings, but 'more for the young men than for the politics'.
Holt continually asserts how important Pym's imagination was to her; she often preferred her conjured fantasies and imagined relationships with others to whatever was happening in reality. Holt follows Pym through various love affairs; here, she observes, Pym often 'made the mistake of expecting more than the other person was prepared to give, of building a great romantic castle on shifting sand.'
In some ways, Holt writes, Pym was rather naïve, and this was particularly true when it came to politics, or the problems of the wider world. When she moved to Poland to work as a governess in the tumultuous days of 1938, she largely ignored the threat of war: 'Although she notes without comment that the Germans had entered Prague she gives equal space in her diary to the fact that she had been served fried potatoes with yoghurt.' Holt captures, quite vividly, Pym's travels around Europe, which become extensive following the Second World War, as well as the war work which she completed in Naples, Italy.
In A Lot to Ask there is, as one might expect, a lot of commentary about Pym's books and her writing practices, which I found rather enlightening. Holt quotes at length from many of Pym's books, in order to further illustrate points. It is clear that even as a teenager, Pym was already developing her signature prose style, capturing scenes and individuals in such vivid detail in just a sentence or two.
Pym wrote thirteen novels, four of which were published posthumously, after her untimely death from cancer in early 1980. There was, however, a painful fourteen-year period in which Pym could not find a publisher for her books, and which impacted her greatly. She is a novelist who has thankfully, and deservedly, risen to prominence once again in the twenty-first century, and I for one feel grateful that I still have several of her books yet to read.
First published in 1990, A Lot to Ask is a biography of the loveliest measure. One can tell how fond Holt was of Pym, yet the biography still feels as considered and far-reaching as it would be had the pair never known one another at all. Like her subject, Holt writes with a great deal of warmth and understanding. So absorbing, and highly readable, A Lot to Ask has so much depth to it, and feels entirely harmonious. Holt's biography is a sheer delight, both charming and satisfying. I would dearly like to read more of her work, as well as the remainder of Pym's correspondence in the near future.
I realised some months ago that there are many authors whose work I have greatly enjoyed, but whom I know very little about as individuals. Trying to remedy that, I requested a copy of Hazel Holt's biography A Lot to Ask: A Life of Barbara Pym from my local library, and settled down with it on a peaceful afternoon.
In this biography, says the blurb, '... we come to know a person whose humour and sharp observation were uniquely combined with a compassionate acceptance of human nature - qualities that made her such an outstanding novelist.' It is promised that Pym 'emerges from these pages as an entertaining companion with an insatiable curiosity and an unquenchable delight in the eccentricities of her fellows.'
Holt was a good friend to Pym, and also acted as her literary executor, before passing away in 2015. In her introduction, Holt writes: 'It seemed right... to try to put Barbara into her own setting, to define the manners and mores of the social scene around her (one day her novels will be a rich source for social historians), to describe her friends and colleagues, and to show how her books were moulded by her life, as well as the other way around.' The book includes many entries from Pym's private papers, as well as a lot of her correspondence; this is particularly true in the case of the friendship between herself and poet Philip Larkin. Even in the briefest correspondence, Pym writes beautifully and compassionately to her intended.
Rather than focus entirely on Pym, Holt gives some of the rather colourful history of her parents and grandparents. Pym's own childhood, in a small market town in Shropshire, was 'comfortable and conventional', quite by contrast to the life of her illegitimate father, and filled with 'a great deal of quiet affection'. When she moved to Oxford to study English Literature at University, however, Pym became somewhat more alive. She kept a diary, which she regularly filled with 'sightings' of men whom she liked, and certainly had a great deal of adventures with them. Whilst at University, Pym occasionally attended Labour Party meetings, but 'more for the young men than for the politics'.
Holt continually asserts how important Pym's imagination was to her; she often preferred her conjured fantasies and imagined relationships with others to whatever was happening in reality. Holt follows Pym through various love affairs; here, she observes, Pym often 'made the mistake of expecting more than the other person was prepared to give, of building a great romantic castle on shifting sand.'
In some ways, Holt writes, Pym was rather naïve, and this was particularly true when it came to politics, or the problems of the wider world. When she moved to Poland to work as a governess in the tumultuous days of 1938, she largely ignored the threat of war: 'Although she notes without comment that the Germans had entered Prague she gives equal space in her diary to the fact that she had been served fried potatoes with yoghurt.' Holt captures, quite vividly, Pym's travels around Europe, which become extensive following the Second World War, as well as the war work which she completed in Naples, Italy.
In A Lot to Ask there is, as one might expect, a lot of commentary about Pym's books and her writing practices, which I found rather enlightening. Holt quotes at length from many of Pym's books, in order to further illustrate points. It is clear that even as a teenager, Pym was already developing her signature prose style, capturing scenes and individuals in such vivid detail in just a sentence or two.
Pym wrote thirteen novels, four of which were published posthumously, after her untimely death from cancer in early 1980. There was, however, a painful fourteen-year period in which Pym could not find a publisher for her books, and which impacted her greatly. She is a novelist who has thankfully, and deservedly, risen to prominence once again in the twenty-first century, and I for one feel grateful that I still have several of her books yet to read.
First published in 1990, A Lot to Ask is a biography of the loveliest measure. One can tell how fond Holt was of Pym, yet the biography still feels as considered and far-reaching as it would be had the pair never known one another at all. Like her subject, Holt writes with a great deal of warmth and understanding. So absorbing, and highly readable, A Lot to Ask has so much depth to it, and feels entirely harmonious. Holt's biography is a sheer delight, both charming and satisfying. I would dearly like to read more of her work, as well as the remainder of Pym's correspondence in the near future.
January 27, 2016
The biggest problem with this book , possibly, can't really be helped--it assumes the reader: a. knows a lot about Pym and her work and b. knows specifics about her many correspondents. For example, she has many letters with a Phillip Larkin, who turns out to be a major post WWII poet in Great Britain (and a fellow who was having affairs with three women at once in the 1970's.) Another interesting note about Larkin--apparently he an Pym correspond for fifteen years before they meet.
One of the interesting things this bio reveals about Pym: In her book No Fond Return of Love, Pym has the heroine researching--even following--someone in order to learn more about him. Apparently, Pym actually did this with a neighbor of hers, whom she then put in a novel.
One of the most notable issues her life is the way her work went out of print in the early 1960's--publishers no long saw it as commercial--but then is brought back to much acclaim in the late 1970's, just before she dies. A hardship of the writer/artist--the art comes when it comes which may or may not be when the people are ready for it.
Some notable thoughts from Pym and her correspondents:
BP: “Novel writing is a kind of private pleasure even if nothing comes of it in worldy terms.” 250
BP: “Still what does it matter really. . . fame is dust to ashes. . . ”246
Phillip Larkin bemoans those “sudden, stabbing memories of absurd or painful moments that one is suffused and excoriated by.” 231
Bob Smith: The comedy in her novels “demonstrates again and again the happiness and merriment that can be found in the daily round—that ‘purchase of a sponge cake’ about which Jane Austen felt it proper to write to Cassandra." 223
Phillip Larkin: About a new "cooker" and carpet: “Already the zestful glow that prompted their purchase is fading. With such gewgaws does one get one self through the New Year.” P. 192
BP: “This simple collecting was something, perhaps the only thing, she could do.”174
About Denton Welch: “How tedious the little details seem written down, yet it is always that littleness that seems to have, banked up behind it, great walls of fight and resistance. “ 173
As an anthropologist: “Not even the slightest expression of amusement or disapproval should ever be displayed at the description of ridiculous, impossible or disgusting features in custom, cult or legend." 169
BP: “Even at this moment something dreadful may be happening…somebody dying, languishing with hopeless love or quarrelling about the Church of South India in the Edgware Road…” 163
BP: We analyzed the circumstances as to why people had left St. Laurence’s parish “and came to the conclusion that they had been removed by Rome, Death and Umbrage…Umbrage, of course, removed the greatest number.” 153
“There was never any question of her having a ‘a career’ like [her sister] Hilary. Any job she took would have to leave a least part of her fmind free to get on with her real work which was writing.” 138
One of the interesting things this bio reveals about Pym: In her book No Fond Return of Love, Pym has the heroine researching--even following--someone in order to learn more about him. Apparently, Pym actually did this with a neighbor of hers, whom she then put in a novel.
One of the most notable issues her life is the way her work went out of print in the early 1960's--publishers no long saw it as commercial--but then is brought back to much acclaim in the late 1970's, just before she dies. A hardship of the writer/artist--the art comes when it comes which may or may not be when the people are ready for it.
Some notable thoughts from Pym and her correspondents:
BP: “Novel writing is a kind of private pleasure even if nothing comes of it in worldy terms.” 250
BP: “Still what does it matter really. . . fame is dust to ashes. . . ”246
Phillip Larkin bemoans those “sudden, stabbing memories of absurd or painful moments that one is suffused and excoriated by.” 231
Bob Smith: The comedy in her novels “demonstrates again and again the happiness and merriment that can be found in the daily round—that ‘purchase of a sponge cake’ about which Jane Austen felt it proper to write to Cassandra." 223
Phillip Larkin: About a new "cooker" and carpet: “Already the zestful glow that prompted their purchase is fading. With such gewgaws does one get one self through the New Year.” P. 192
BP: “This simple collecting was something, perhaps the only thing, she could do.”174
About Denton Welch: “How tedious the little details seem written down, yet it is always that littleness that seems to have, banked up behind it, great walls of fight and resistance. “ 173
As an anthropologist: “Not even the slightest expression of amusement or disapproval should ever be displayed at the description of ridiculous, impossible or disgusting features in custom, cult or legend." 169
BP: “Even at this moment something dreadful may be happening…somebody dying, languishing with hopeless love or quarrelling about the Church of South India in the Edgware Road…” 163
BP: We analyzed the circumstances as to why people had left St. Laurence’s parish “and came to the conclusion that they had been removed by Rome, Death and Umbrage…Umbrage, of course, removed the greatest number.” 153
“There was never any question of her having a ‘a career’ like [her sister] Hilary. Any job she took would have to leave a least part of her fmind free to get on with her real work which was writing.” 138
March 26, 2018
One thing I liked as much as learning about Barbara Pym particularly, was the general description of a middle class English way of life and the way it developed from the 'thirties through the 'seventies. Perhaps it was just the format of the kindle, but there were times where it was not clear when the author was making a blockquote of one of Pym's novels, and there would be some momentary confusion.
October 30, 2025
I think I read this biography about twenty years ago and enjoyed it.
July 19, 2016
The biography that I imagine Barbara Pym would have written herself. Edited to its essentials. Rich in detail, and here we find that many of the small gestures and details in the novels came from her own experience, like the sinkful of flowers at the office. Gentle but not soppy. Well written. Reading this biography is like taking a tour of Barbara Pym's canon and recognizing the characters and situations in a slightly different context.
April 14, 2025
Hazel Holt's biography of Barbara Pym is mainly an echo of 'A Very Private Eye', which I read earlier in the month. There is, of course, a lot of crossover for obvious reasons. There is also a lot of crossover in terms of quotations from letters and notebooks.
Holt was a friend of Barbara Pym's, was one of her literary executors, and helped put 'A Very Private Eye' together so perhaps that is no surprise either. It does have more too it to, especially on her relationships and helps contextualise 'A Very Private Eye' too. It is though a biography written by a friend and so one should perhaps approach it in that light.
It is full of quotes - from Pym and from friends of Pym - which means that Holt's own text is probably two thirds or a half of the book which does make you wonder what the point of it was when 'A Very Private Eye' exists. I think it might have been better to merge 'A Lot to Ask' and 'A Very Private Eye' together and call it a biography. This book was published in 1990 and is, I think, out of print whereas 'A Very Private Eye' is still in print so effectively two books that should be one book are becoming one book by default.
That isn't to say I didn't enjoy it. I did but I think reading 'A Very Private Eye' and 'A Lot to Ask' so close together was probably a mistake.
The one thing I did note was, having read 'Jane Austen's Bookshelf' by Rebecca Romney, was how close Pym came to joining 'the Great Disappearance' of women writers in the late-1960s through to the late-1970s. Romney writes well on the different ways a popular writer can disappear and Pym was at risk of vanishing from publication because fashion meant her books were seen as too gentle, too old-fashioned in the counter-cultural world of the late-60s.
She was saved by a sudden interest in her work that came from a TLS article on the under-appreciated writers of the 20th century, where she was the only living writer to be mentioned twice: by Lord David Cecil and Philip Larkin. Up until that point attempts to get her new work published had failed starting with the abandonment of her by Jonathan Cape who had previously published her novels. Tom Maschler at Cape comes out of this book as something of a minor villain. So, she never disappeared and - it seems to me at least - she is going through another renaissance. Probably just because the work is so good and there aren't a lot of books like hers.
I think Anne Tyler says it best:
"Who do people turn to when they've finished Barbara Pym? The answer is easy: they turn to Barbara Pym."
Holt was a friend of Barbara Pym's, was one of her literary executors, and helped put 'A Very Private Eye' together so perhaps that is no surprise either. It does have more too it to, especially on her relationships and helps contextualise 'A Very Private Eye' too. It is though a biography written by a friend and so one should perhaps approach it in that light.
It is full of quotes - from Pym and from friends of Pym - which means that Holt's own text is probably two thirds or a half of the book which does make you wonder what the point of it was when 'A Very Private Eye' exists. I think it might have been better to merge 'A Lot to Ask' and 'A Very Private Eye' together and call it a biography. This book was published in 1990 and is, I think, out of print whereas 'A Very Private Eye' is still in print so effectively two books that should be one book are becoming one book by default.
That isn't to say I didn't enjoy it. I did but I think reading 'A Very Private Eye' and 'A Lot to Ask' so close together was probably a mistake.
The one thing I did note was, having read 'Jane Austen's Bookshelf' by Rebecca Romney, was how close Pym came to joining 'the Great Disappearance' of women writers in the late-1960s through to the late-1970s. Romney writes well on the different ways a popular writer can disappear and Pym was at risk of vanishing from publication because fashion meant her books were seen as too gentle, too old-fashioned in the counter-cultural world of the late-60s.
She was saved by a sudden interest in her work that came from a TLS article on the under-appreciated writers of the 20th century, where she was the only living writer to be mentioned twice: by Lord David Cecil and Philip Larkin. Up until that point attempts to get her new work published had failed starting with the abandonment of her by Jonathan Cape who had previously published her novels. Tom Maschler at Cape comes out of this book as something of a minor villain. So, she never disappeared and - it seems to me at least - she is going through another renaissance. Probably just because the work is so good and there aren't a lot of books like hers.
I think Anne Tyler says it best:
"Who do people turn to when they've finished Barbara Pym? The answer is easy: they turn to Barbara Pym."
June 23, 2025
I acquired this at the same time as Pym's 'autobiography' A Very Private Eye, which Holt put together from Pym's diaries and letters following her death. I deliberately left a couple of months between the books as I felt that reading them back to back might be too repetitive.
In the forward, Holt says, perhaps understandably, that she hopes both books will be read as they 'compliment' each other. My personal view is that only one is really necessary, as they are both very similar - the only real difference is the Pym/Holt ratio in the writing! A Very Private Eye is Pym's writings strung together with brief linking paragraphs by Holt. A Lot to Ask is mostly Holt's writing, but with copious quotations from Pym.
I think this is by far the better book. There is an awful lot of repetition and a fair bit of silliness in Pym's private writings, especially as a young woman, and I found it rapidly became tedious in 'A Very Private Eye'. The obsession with clothes and the gushing over young men is still present in this book, but far less prominent. We hear about her various love affairs and her agonising over the writing of her novels, but again, it is covered much more succinctly. Holt quotes enough of Pym's own writing to demonstrate her personality, but not so much that it becomes boring.
As with the autobiography, I do find Holt's attitude to Pym's 'detective work' very strange. Pym was obsessed with learning as much as possible about any man she fell in love with, and would often surreptitiously follow him or his family in an attempt to learn more - much of her behaviour would be termed 'stalking' today, so it's odd to read Holt's approving comments about it!
My only other quibble with this biography is that Holt doesn't include the source of quotations within the text, only in the end notes, so one is left wondering if a specific quote is from a novel, letter or notebook. Not a huge issue, but it does sometimes spoil the flow of reading.
Recommended to those who know Pym's work well and would like to learn more about her personal life - and definitely to be read in preference to 'A Very Private Eye'.
In the forward, Holt says, perhaps understandably, that she hopes both books will be read as they 'compliment' each other. My personal view is that only one is really necessary, as they are both very similar - the only real difference is the Pym/Holt ratio in the writing! A Very Private Eye is Pym's writings strung together with brief linking paragraphs by Holt. A Lot to Ask is mostly Holt's writing, but with copious quotations from Pym.
I think this is by far the better book. There is an awful lot of repetition and a fair bit of silliness in Pym's private writings, especially as a young woman, and I found it rapidly became tedious in 'A Very Private Eye'. The obsession with clothes and the gushing over young men is still present in this book, but far less prominent. We hear about her various love affairs and her agonising over the writing of her novels, but again, it is covered much more succinctly. Holt quotes enough of Pym's own writing to demonstrate her personality, but not so much that it becomes boring.
As with the autobiography, I do find Holt's attitude to Pym's 'detective work' very strange. Pym was obsessed with learning as much as possible about any man she fell in love with, and would often surreptitiously follow him or his family in an attempt to learn more - much of her behaviour would be termed 'stalking' today, so it's odd to read Holt's approving comments about it!
My only other quibble with this biography is that Holt doesn't include the source of quotations within the text, only in the end notes, so one is left wondering if a specific quote is from a novel, letter or notebook. Not a huge issue, but it does sometimes spoil the flow of reading.
Recommended to those who know Pym's work well and would like to learn more about her personal life - and definitely to be read in preference to 'A Very Private Eye'.
October 14, 2020
I've read several, but not all, of Pym's novels and quickly became just as interested in the author as much as her work. So I read the few articles I could find online and then progressed to her memoir as that was easier to find. The memoir, A Very Private Eye, I believe is a selection of diary entries, journals and letters selected by Holt and Pym's sister posthumously, not Barbara Pym herself. The downside is that it's not a smooth reading experience as it's not looking back in retrospect so it has gaps but the upside is it's authenticity - definitely Pym. Which is why this book works exactly as the author hazel Holt intended - a companion biography filling in the gaps and rounding out the story. Even though Holt was a close friend she was able to honestly size Pym up: a great writer, a good friend, an Excellent Woman, an imperfect self-doubting artist. It was written for fans of Pym or at the very least those interested in her, it isn't meant to be an introduction to the author or for people to 'rediscover' the great author - that's already been done. It's a consolation prize for how much more Pym could have done had she the chance.
June 23, 2020
A must-read book for all readers who, like me, can't get enough of Barbara Pym! It was very interesting to meet the real-life inspiration for some of Barbara Pym's most recognizable fictional characters. This life, which by a superficial evaluation could be considered sad and barren (spinster living with her divorced sister, working a rather dreary office job) was actually full of small joys and pains. I had not appreciated how much Barbara Pym was in love with the idea of being in love, and how she had fed and maintained some of her impossible infatuations with the type of "investigations" that we know from Dulcie Mainwaring in "No Fond Return of Love". The diary and letter excerpts shed light on life during WWII and the dreary decade afterwards. Just as I enjoy the miniature vignettes of daily life in Barbara Pym's works, so did I enjoy the little peeks into the everyday lives of Barbara Pym and her sister, Hilary. These are relatively quiet lives, compared to the biographies of many male novelists (divorces! Affairs! Shocking feuds with other writers!), but I enjoyed it.
July 19, 2022
Delightful, thorough, if somewhat circumspect biography of Barbara Pym by her friend, Hazel Holt. Many love affairs are mentioned, but Holt does not tell us whether they were affairs of the heart, or whether sex was involved. So interesting to read about the people in her life and learn that she used them all in her books. Nice to learn that, although her fiction fell out of fashion for years, it did come back to the forefront a couple of years before she passed away. The book is replete with many direct quotations from diaries and letters. The author, although a good friend of Pym's, does not insert herself into the story, and in fact only uses the the "I" or "we" voice a handful of times.
March 16, 2023
I'm really glad I finally read this, a biography of one of my favorite authors that's been on my TBR list for years. What an interesting woman. I loved reading about her experiences during WWII. I also loved reading about her experiences being published, then being dropped and out of print, and then very late in life, being "re-discovered" and published again to great acclaim. This was written by a good friend and work colleague, and she included lots of quotations from Pym's letters and diaries. A must-read for Pym fans.
September 3, 2018
A wonderful biography. It was so great to learn more about B. Pym from someone who knew and liked her. I already plan to reread it next year, because it's so rich I'm sure I missed details.
And Barbara Pym was definitely a great woman and equally great writer! My heart ached for all the years she felt she wasn't good enough.
And Barbara Pym was definitely a great woman and equally great writer! My heart ached for all the years she felt she wasn't good enough.
February 9, 2018
I have always enjoyed Barbara Pym's work, and this biography adds another dimension to my appreciation of the novels. Holt deftly weaves passages from the novels into this biography. Now I want to go back and re-read the novels. This is an excellent biography of an intriguing writer.
May 13, 2020
Made me fall in love with BARBARA Pam, an author I read avidly in the ‘80s, all over again. My very slow COVID-19 lockdown read.
The book’s format was difficult to follow, with quotes from Barbara Pym and those written about her hard to distinguish.
The book’s format was difficult to follow, with quotes from Barbara Pym and those written about her hard to distinguish.
July 15, 2020
"oh... Inexpressible joy. But like all the perfect pleasures touched with a marvellous spot of melancholy"
"penetrating, tender... Humanity through all her work"
"penetrating, tender... Humanity through all her work"
September 8, 2022
Excellent bio by her close friend. Very revealing and kind. Extremely enjoyable read. I liked it better than the collection of diaries and letters, as it was more selective and less repetitive.
May 4, 2020
2020 has become my year of rereading the novels of Barbara Pym, my favourite novelist - "favourite" in the sense of "speaks most to my soul", not as in "greatest" or "best"; I believe she would have appreciated the distinction. This is my revised review.
A frustrating but nevertheless important biography.
First of all, if you haven't read Pym's 12 novels, go seek them out (preferably in order). Then read her collected unpublished works - Civil to Strangers and Other Writings - and the posthumous "autobiography" compiled from Pym's letters and diaries, A Very Private Eye: The Diaries, Letters And Notebooks Of Barbara Pym. If all of this does not satisfy you, read this volume too.
This 1990 biography, by Pym's close friend and literary executor Hazel Holt (with input from Pym's sister Hilary), came 10 years after the author's death, and was the conclusion of a decade in which a variety of unpublished and secondary works were released into the market. Brits and - especially - Americans - were fascinated by the legend of Miss Pym, a moderately successful spinster author, neglected for 16 years, and rediscovered in 1977, only to pass away three years later.
As with her novels, Pym's biography must be one of seemingly small details pointing to a much larger story. The desire to be a writer since childhood, fulfilled to underwhelming sales in the 1950s, and then neglected for almost two decades before sudden fame. The endless series of love affairs, in which Pym was either underwhelmed (she declined several proposals in her 20s) or overwhelmed (one young gay man, much her junior, essentially "ghosts" her after taking an extended trip overseas, to get away from her attentions). The sensible editorial assistant who can quote Milton or Keats, yet has an admirably silly side when it comes to creating stories about strange people on the bus or the lives of her cats. The passionate force restrained firmly in a tweed jacket.
This is an interesting volume, I note, and has a place of honour on my shelf alongside the matching covers of Pym's complete works. Yet much is missing. First, of course, is objectivity. True - Pym's life is not one beset by scandal! Nevertheless, the closeness of the author to her subject means we are seeing something approaching hagiography. (It does, however, allow Holt to add in her own memories of working with Pym for several years, and of Pym's psychological state during the "wilderness years" and in the final, grim months before her passing.)
Second, and most importantly, this biography is missing much detail. As Holt notes in her preface, this is a companion to A Very Private Eye. This is primarily to fill in the gaps of that first volume, and put some of the core moments of Barbara's life into a chronology. Which is great, but it leaves this book rather assuming a degree of knowledge in the reader.
Finally, and personally most affecting, is that I yearn for a biographer to chart Pym's writings - both analytically, and also in psychological relation to the author. Holt doesn't avoid this entirely. She discusses the transition from Pym's early novels (mostly unpublished except for her first sale, Some Tame Gazelle) to the more mature post-war novels starting with her second (Excellent Women) as well as noting the connections between real-life figures and their fictional counterparts. No book can be everything, but I would have enjoyed a greater understanding of, for instance, whether Pym's younger characters still spoke to her as she became older, how much she is reflected in her crueller characters, such as the deluded Leonora in The Sweet Dove Died or the frosty Wilmet in A Glass of Blessings, and just what it is about Pym's technique that has earned her much love but also some disdain. At the end of the day, Holt has written a biography of a woman who happened to be an author. This is very valuable, but I would now like to see the inverse.
Anyhow, that time will come. (Perhaps I should do it myself?) I find it hard to explain this review; I feel as if I have written something both entirely positive and entirely negative. So I must abandon this, simply encouraging you to read the novelist, and then appreciate this biography as an early insight - hopefully not the last we get.
A frustrating but nevertheless important biography.
First of all, if you haven't read Pym's 12 novels, go seek them out (preferably in order). Then read her collected unpublished works - Civil to Strangers and Other Writings - and the posthumous "autobiography" compiled from Pym's letters and diaries, A Very Private Eye: The Diaries, Letters And Notebooks Of Barbara Pym. If all of this does not satisfy you, read this volume too.
This 1990 biography, by Pym's close friend and literary executor Hazel Holt (with input from Pym's sister Hilary), came 10 years after the author's death, and was the conclusion of a decade in which a variety of unpublished and secondary works were released into the market. Brits and - especially - Americans - were fascinated by the legend of Miss Pym, a moderately successful spinster author, neglected for 16 years, and rediscovered in 1977, only to pass away three years later.
As with her novels, Pym's biography must be one of seemingly small details pointing to a much larger story. The desire to be a writer since childhood, fulfilled to underwhelming sales in the 1950s, and then neglected for almost two decades before sudden fame. The endless series of love affairs, in which Pym was either underwhelmed (she declined several proposals in her 20s) or overwhelmed (one young gay man, much her junior, essentially "ghosts" her after taking an extended trip overseas, to get away from her attentions). The sensible editorial assistant who can quote Milton or Keats, yet has an admirably silly side when it comes to creating stories about strange people on the bus or the lives of her cats. The passionate force restrained firmly in a tweed jacket.
This is an interesting volume, I note, and has a place of honour on my shelf alongside the matching covers of Pym's complete works. Yet much is missing. First, of course, is objectivity. True - Pym's life is not one beset by scandal! Nevertheless, the closeness of the author to her subject means we are seeing something approaching hagiography. (It does, however, allow Holt to add in her own memories of working with Pym for several years, and of Pym's psychological state during the "wilderness years" and in the final, grim months before her passing.)
Second, and most importantly, this biography is missing much detail. As Holt notes in her preface, this is a companion to A Very Private Eye. This is primarily to fill in the gaps of that first volume, and put some of the core moments of Barbara's life into a chronology. Which is great, but it leaves this book rather assuming a degree of knowledge in the reader.
Finally, and personally most affecting, is that I yearn for a biographer to chart Pym's writings - both analytically, and also in psychological relation to the author. Holt doesn't avoid this entirely. She discusses the transition from Pym's early novels (mostly unpublished except for her first sale, Some Tame Gazelle) to the more mature post-war novels starting with her second (Excellent Women) as well as noting the connections between real-life figures and their fictional counterparts. No book can be everything, but I would have enjoyed a greater understanding of, for instance, whether Pym's younger characters still spoke to her as she became older, how much she is reflected in her crueller characters, such as the deluded Leonora in The Sweet Dove Died or the frosty Wilmet in A Glass of Blessings, and just what it is about Pym's technique that has earned her much love but also some disdain. At the end of the day, Holt has written a biography of a woman who happened to be an author. This is very valuable, but I would now like to see the inverse.
Anyhow, that time will come. (Perhaps I should do it myself?) I find it hard to explain this review; I feel as if I have written something both entirely positive and entirely negative. So I must abandon this, simply encouraging you to read the novelist, and then appreciate this biography as an early insight - hopefully not the last we get.
October 13, 2010
Clearly written by a close friend who was inclined to present only the good side of Pym (one imagines she had to be unpleasant or annoying on at least the odd occasion), this book is choc-a-bloc with the kind of scenarios that admiring Pym readers (and that would include me) relish. For example, her friend, Bob Smith, knowing how she loved such details wrote to her:
"I have have been reading a delightful, though perhaps rather bitchy new book by Fr. Stephenson about Walsingham and Fr. H.P. There is a vignette of H.P. instructing the Sunday school children on what to do when confronted with an unbaptized person dying in a railway carriage."
I do wonder, however, what Pym would have made of Philip Larkin, had she known that, in spite of his very homely looks (but brilliant brain, one must admit) that he was managing to juggle intimate relationships with three women simultaneously (including his long-suffering secretary, who advised him on how to deal with the jealously of the two other women, once they found out about each other). Plus, of course, the fact that Larkin had semi-obscene, S&M thoughts about schoolgirls (about whom he wrote, as one reviewer noted, "pitiful pornography and feeble erotica"). I can't help thinking that this might have been a bit beyond her. What kind of phrase would she find for such revelations?
"I have have been reading a delightful, though perhaps rather bitchy new book by Fr. Stephenson about Walsingham and Fr. H.P. There is a vignette of H.P. instructing the Sunday school children on what to do when confronted with an unbaptized person dying in a railway carriage."
I do wonder, however, what Pym would have made of Philip Larkin, had she known that, in spite of his very homely looks (but brilliant brain, one must admit) that he was managing to juggle intimate relationships with three women simultaneously (including his long-suffering secretary, who advised him on how to deal with the jealously of the two other women, once they found out about each other). Plus, of course, the fact that Larkin had semi-obscene, S&M thoughts about schoolgirls (about whom he wrote, as one reviewer noted, "pitiful pornography and feeble erotica"). I can't help thinking that this might have been a bit beyond her. What kind of phrase would she find for such revelations?
February 7, 2017
Barbara Pym was an excellent writer, but was very underated during her lifetime, only receiving recognition during the last years of her life. Hazel Holt worked with Pym for 20 years and started to write her own fiction at age 60. Pym's life seems to have been rather dull, as most writer's lives must be since what they do is simply write. This biography follows Pym's life, her intense love affairs, her irratic comings and goings (she visits Poland right before the outbreak of war), and her extensive correspondence--14 years of correspondence with the poet, Phillip Larkin, before they met. Some of the entries are daily extracts of her journals and letters. It's wonderful to read how she finally received the accolades she was entitled to. On the whole I thought the book was a little too long and in parts uninteresting. Still, anything she wrote (and a lot is quoted here) is worth reading. I recommend Pym's books: Some Tame Gazelle, Excellent Women, Jane and Prudence, especially. But all are terrific.
February 10, 2010
I have now read most - although not all of Barbara Pym's novels - and so was keen to snap up this biography up from Amazon marketplace a couple of months ago. It is certainly a fascinating must read for any fans of Barbara Pym, written affectionately by a woman who knew and worked with her.
The Barbara Pym that emerges from this book was, in some ways the woman I expected ( anglicanism, and a mix of Oxford/London and quiet village life) and in others she wasn't ( a young flirty wren with a bit of a reputation). She was also a woman who never lost her enthusiasm for writing, nor did she, during the years when she couldn't get published, ever stop believing that she would be. Her endless curiosity in life and the people around her lasted right until the end.
Some of the best bits of this biography come in the latter part, in the wonderfully wry and humorous extracts of letters from Phillip Larkin to Barbara Pym during their long correspondence.
The Barbara Pym that emerges from this book was, in some ways the woman I expected ( anglicanism, and a mix of Oxford/London and quiet village life) and in others she wasn't ( a young flirty wren with a bit of a reputation). She was also a woman who never lost her enthusiasm for writing, nor did she, during the years when she couldn't get published, ever stop believing that she would be. Her endless curiosity in life and the people around her lasted right until the end.
Some of the best bits of this biography come in the latter part, in the wonderfully wry and humorous extracts of letters from Phillip Larkin to Barbara Pym during their long correspondence.
February 11, 2018
I'm a couple chapters into this book about one of my favorite writers.
Finishing up "A Lot to Ask".. I"ve been having a hard time reading this book. Barbara Pym is one of my favorite writers so I am very interested in studying her life story. I don't know whether it was the way the book goes from journal entry to letter to reflection..or what .. But there was something sort of choppy in the flow.. Anyone else have that experience reading this? I loved it when Hazel Holt got to her personal memories of Barbara Pym. I wish the whole book had been about those.. Suddenly one is immersed in the fascinating details.
Finishing up "A Lot to Ask".. I"ve been having a hard time reading this book. Barbara Pym is one of my favorite writers so I am very interested in studying her life story. I don't know whether it was the way the book goes from journal entry to letter to reflection..or what .. But there was something sort of choppy in the flow.. Anyone else have that experience reading this? I loved it when Hazel Holt got to her personal memories of Barbara Pym. I wish the whole book had been about those.. Suddenly one is immersed in the fascinating details.
November 16, 2023
I read this in order to educate myself about Barbara Pym and it was a successful exercise. Hazel Holt wrote well and knew her subject well. There are many references to books written by Barbara Pym because she tended to draw (as in sketch) her characters from herself, or from people she had met, and in the case of men, loved. I should perhaps clarify somewhat and say that she was not promiscuous, she herself realised that she needed to love someone else to feel fulfilled in herself. She never married and one wonders if it would have worked out if she had. She valued her independence and freedom.
I have now started on "Some Tame Gazelle" and have "Quarter in Autumn" waiting in the wings.
I have now started on "Some Tame Gazelle" and have "Quarter in Autumn" waiting in the wings.
January 1, 2011
It was nice to read about the life of a woman whose works intrigued me so much. She could write about the most mundane daily tasks and yet make them feel important and exacting - which they are, when they are YOUR daily tasks! Loved her portrayals of women who, in the age of "must marry", refused to do so.
February 23, 2015
Anyone fond of the novels of Barbara Pym could not fail to enjoy this account of her life by friend and colleague Hazel Holt. It is studded with favorite quotes and satisfyingly links the books to the author's life.
April 2, 2015
I thoroughly enjoyed Holt's biography of Pym - imminently readable.
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