Books
by Paula Byrne
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The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym |
A splendidly compendious biography, life and works of a very unusual woman. Against my expectations of a prim life lived among vicars and cosy local communities, in reality she lead a rackety life, inventing alternative personas for herself, constantly falling in love with horrible men, including a Nazi SS officer, living in London where she stalked her neighbours. And yet she had an amazing eye for, precisely, the world of vicars etc. Eye-opening and enthralling.
(Annabel Bedini - bwl 109 Summer 2023) |
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The Real Jane Austin |
Byrne uses objects associated with the author - jewellery, a miniature, notebooks, the bathing machine - to illuminate Austen's life and character. What emerges is both individual and convincing, a portrait of a woman with a keen grasp of the world around her, a mordant line in humour, a deep but understated faith, sometimes financially stressed but increasingly placing her writing above the possibility of marriage. The tame spinster in a narrow circle is banished in favour of a real, formidable person.
(Tony Pratt - bwl 86 Autumn 2017) |
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