Books similar to BP

I'm always on the lookout for authors who are similar to Pym. Any suggestions?

How about the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society?

Oooh, sorry, I don't think I can agree with that one, tuppy.

One of the reasons that Pym's novels delight me so is that I haven't really found anything quite like them.

Has anyone read Elizabeth Goudge? My sister-in-law collects her books, and I have a feeling that they might have something in common with Pym--but I've never read them. Most of them are set in English towns in the 1930s to 1960s. When I asked my SIL what they were about--were they romances, mysteries, women's novels, or what?--she just said they were hard to describe and were "about everything." I kind of got the impression that they were such a secret treasure to her that she didn't want to share them or talk about them. (Obviously she's not on LT!)

Although his writing isn't like hers (she is unique, after all), it does create a similar glow of happiness when I read E.F. Benson's Mapp & Lucia series. Moyer Bell has released the entire series in a lovely set of books. As you can tell from the introduction page, I am fond of Moyer Bell publications because of the fine quality of their paper, covers and very readable fonts.

The Mapp & Lucia series is my all-time best comfort series, full of wry humour, wonderful understatement and the same kind of village sensibility which Pym brings to things. ETA: set in England between the wars, in the 30s.

I have read Elizabeth Goudge but I read her children's books which were fantasies and lovely but not like Pym. I think that Muriel Spark has some of Pym's gift for dissecting human nature but she is more ascerbic.

I don't think that anybody has ever been like her at all. I'd have offered Muriel Spark, but Maren beat me to it. I will, therefore, timidly put Angela Thirkell out there........... I don't think she has Pym's depth though.
(And I adore Mapp and Lucia, but I wouldn't have thought of them on my own.)

Thanks for the suggestions. I thought the Guernsey was quite good. I haven't read Elizabeth Goudge but I have Muriel Spark on my wishlist. Elizabeth Taylor (the author, not the actress) and Nancy Mitford pop up quite a bit under LT recommendations for Pym's novels.

I enjoyed The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society--but I don't see much connection to Pym in style or characterization, although it is set in the 1940s UK.

It's not *very* similar, but reading Pym reminded me a *little* bit of Winifred Watson's Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.

Indeed, many of the Persephone titles would probably fit the bill.

How about D. E. Stevenson and E. M. Delafield?

I keep being told about authors who are like Barbara Pym, for example, Anita Brookner and Sally ...oh dear, the woman who wrote Mr Golightly's holiday. I do not agree. To me BP's work is unique. Although i have enjoyed them all and read and re-read many times I wonder if anyone has read Some Tame Gazelle which includes characters based on herself, her sister and her friends. It is highly amusing.

ET was a friend of BP's but I understand her books are more 'gritty'. I must read some!

I should probably have titled this topic more generically ... something along the lines of 'Besides Pym, which other authors do you enjoy reading?'

I discovered Margery Sharp through LT. Her books are lighter than Barbara Pym's. The heroines are generally more energetic and outgoing and further down the social scale. I liked Britannia Mews, The Foolish Gentlewoman and The Nutmeg Tree.

I think Barbara Comyns has a similar style although a bit more... hm... naive and peculiar! And newer author Victoria Clayton has some great scenes in publishers which echo. Also some Davi Lodge and Malcolm Bradbury capture a similar academic looniness.

HA! I was going to suggest both Margery Sharp and Victoria Clayton, but Pam and Lyzzy beat me to it.

I think of Elizabeth Taylor as a 'darker' Barbara Pym. In the books of hers I've read, her protagonists are often lonely married women or widows. I especially liked Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont (also made into a very good movie), and put it in the same category as Quartet in Autumn.

Barbara Comyns is interesting too--peculiar is a good word for her books.

Tiffin already mentioned E.F. Benson, but what about Ronald Firbank? I don't know much about Pym's reading, but she does drop in a few references to Firbank here and there, so he must have been one of her influences (e.g. the passing mention of a Cardinal Pirelli during the Roman bit of An unsuitable attachment). Her use of fragmented conversations and plots that don't go anywhere is sometimes very Firbankian, especially in the early books, although she never gets quite as carried away as he does.

#18 - Yes, Elizabeth Taylor's writing is definitely a bit darker, but still very Pymish, I think. I've read several of her books and they do have a Pym feel to them.

For mystery lovers, there's also Hazel Holt's Mrs. Malory series - not as deep or rich as Pym's novels, of course, but Holt was a close friend of BP's and her literary executor, and her style is very similar. And the Mrs. Malory books are very nice cozies.

Thanks, jls, for the cozies tip. Always a need for those on bleaker days.

Hello all! Just joined this lovely group today and have BP in my TBR.

What caught my eye was jlshall's recommendation of Hazel Holt, which also takes us back to Mapp and Lucia.

Hazel Holt mentions 'Mapp and Lucia' in one or two of her Mrs Malory books (I think Mrs Malory reads M&L) AND I believe Hazel Holt is a great fan of M&L. This in turn led to her son, Tom Holt, also appreciating M&L and he started his writing career (I believe) by writing two M&L 'sequels'.

This connection tickled me as E F Benson's Mapp and Lucia keeps popping up. Alexander McCall Smith is also a fan of M&L AND BP.

Thanks for starting this thread! Always great to find new authors that are likely to appeal.

Tom Holt's books are Lucia in Wartime and Lucia Triumphant.

I was thinking that if you like BP you might like Dorothy Whipple, or Elizabeth Taylor. F.M Mayor's novel The Rector's Daughter has a feel of BP about it too.

>19 thorold:

Firbank's novels are wonderful--if you have a taste for that sort of thing (I do). But I can't imagine anyone would think of him as a writer similar to Pym. He has a gift for the outré, a word I would never associate with Pym (for example, The Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli --and I quote: "begins with the Cardinal christening a dog in his cathedral ('And thus being cleansed and purified, I do call thee "Crack"!') and ends with His Eminence dying of a heart attack while chasing, naked, a choirboy around the aisles."

There really is no one exactly like Pym, although those who enjoy her works might also enjoy Rose Macaulay's novels. The Towers of Trebizond is rightly regarded as her masterpiece, but Staying With Relations and Going Abroad are hilarious, and are most likely to please Pym fans.

I just read my first Jane Gardam book (Queen of the Tambourine) and though I didn't really enjoy the entire novel, her writing was very impressive. I remember thinking that the writing had shades of Barbara Pym but with much more bite. Gardam is darker though and more wicked but there are some similarities. I agree that there is no one who is like Pym exactly. Have any of you read Gardam?

I've had Old Filth sitting here for two years, Tuppy. One of these fine days...

I haven't read that Tiffin but heard it's brilliant. I also have it sitting on my TBR. Let me know when you do read it.

While out of town during the holidays, I had the opportunity to reread Queen Lucia, which I first read over 20 years ago. It it interesting to read them after discovering Barbara Pym. Others have commented on similarities between Benson and Pym, but they are really very different: Benson's attitude towards his characters has a sarcastic edge and a mocking quality not found in Pym's writing (in least in the books I've read). Her characters, even when behaving ludicrously, are never treated with scorn or contempt.

I really recommend Old Filth. She treats her chracters with respect and affection, whilst not shying away from uncomfortable truths. Bilgewater is also very good indeed.

There is no one like Pym (does Austen come to mind at all - an amused look at life?) for making one laugh aloud at things that would be just everyday and missed in another's hands.

I love Elizabeth Goudge but she's really not the same kind of writer at all. She completely lacks any of Pym's wryness or sense of the ridiculous. That said, she's sometimes very good at exposing the dark secrets of the human heart, but she does it with serious, not comic, intent. Her books vary greatly Green Dolphin Country being by far the best, and The Dean's Watch a good runner up. If you like family sagas, Elizabeth jane Howard's are engaging and very well written.

Lucky me, I happen to have Old Filth sitting here, as well as Howard's Cazelet series.

Hello, it's late in the piece for this, but I have only just joined Library Thing and found this group. I think William Trevor for a "who writes like" list, personally.

I think Pym is singularly unique as an author. Indeed, that is part of her attraction. I would never compare her to Jane Austen, and I am afraid I am in that camp that believes Austen to be vastly overrated. I have only read one book that I found to be similar to Pym's wry observation of seemingly small lives, and that is Penelope Lively's "Passing On". Lively's work can be all over the shop...I have enjoyed some, but not all of it. However, I found "Passing On" to be utterly charming and full of well-observed little gems.

What about Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico?
And Rumer Godden?

Looks like I'm way late in reading E.F. Benson's Mapp and Lucia books again!

>25 Django6924: Django6924 Thanks for the various new-to-me authors to try, like Rose Macaulay Staying With Relations and Going Abroad (touchstone not working) are hilarious, and are most likely to please Pym fans.)

>10 Eat_Read_Knit: CatyM Winifred Watson's Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.

I'm also a fan of Margery Sharp, especially The Stone of Chastity and Angela Thirkell's Barsetshire novels. I don't care at all for her edgy first novel, I forget its name.

Oh, and I should read BP again. It's been many years.

SaintSunniva, haven't read the Mrs 'Arris books, so will have a look. The Rumer Goddens I've read have been a long way from comic literature: religious and intense. None of Pym's lightness and subtlety. I've read In this House of Brede and Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy. Has she written lighter books as well?

>35 pamelad: pamelad - you're right about Rumer Godden being intense and religious, especially the two books you mention. Two of my favorites by her are Episode of Sparrows (made into a movie which iI believe is long out of print and sadly impossible to get) and The Battle of the Villa Fiorita, which was also made into a movie, starring Ingrid Bergman. Both have enjoyable comedic elements, in well-told stories.

I'm reading Penelope Lively's Passing On. I'm not very far into it and so far it's sort of on the dreary side, but I'm hoping it brightens up.

Not quite as witty, but The Village by Laski seemed quite Pym-ish to me...

An Episode of Sparrows is available through Amazon.com (new) and Amazon.co.uk (secondhand) for anyone wanting a copy

My thoughts exactly! Passing On was excellent in the same quiet, normal-life way that Pym's novels all are.