The Sweet Dove Died
04 January 2024Synopsis
‘Barbara Pym is one of my most favourite novelists. Few other writers have given me more laughter and more pleasure’ - Jilly Cooper, author of The Thursday Murder Club
‘Life is cruel and we do terrible things to each other.’
The lives of Humphrey and James Boyce, a seasoned antique dealer and his good-looking nephew, are changed for ever when the elegant Leonora Eyre glides into their bustling Bond Street salesroom, delicate as porcelain, cool as ice. An impassioned bid lands her a coveted book and two equally enthralled companions.
As the enigmatic Leonora navigates these relationships, others are drawn into her mysterious and intoxicating web, and a world of human complexities and simmering desires is exposed.
Pym brings her unique voice to this darkly comic exploration of love, loneliness and jealousy.
‘I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym’ - Richard Osman, author of The Thursday Murder Club
‘Faultless’ -The Guardian
‘Her characters are all meticulously impaled on the delicate pins of a wit that is as scrupulous as it is deadly’ - The Observer
‘A coldly funny book’ -The Sunday Telegraph
‘Highly distinctive . . . The critics who have recently insisted on Miss Pym’s too long neglected gifts have not been wrong’ - Financial Times
Details
04 January 2024
9781529091892Reviews
The most underrated novelist of the century . . . The subtlest of her books — the sparkle on first acquaintance has been succeeded by the deeper brilliance of established artPhilip Larkin, poet and author of The Whitsun Weddings
[Pym] makes me smile, laugh out loud, consider my own foibles and fantasies and, above all, suffer real regret when I reach the final page. Of how many authors can you honestly say that?Mavis Cheek, author of Aunt Margaret's Lover
A splendid, humorous writerJohn Betjeman, Poet Laureate 1972-1984
Barbara Pym has a sharp eye for the exact nuances of social behaviourThe Times
