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A Very Private Eye: The Diaries, Letters And Notebooks Of Barbara Pym QUOTES

A Very Private Eye: The Diaries, Letters And Notebooks Of Barbara Pym QUOTES

1 " How absurd and delicious it is to be in love with somebody younger than yourself. Everybody should try it. "

― Barbara Pym , A Very Private Eye: The Diaries, Letters And Notebooks Of Barbara Pym

2 " On the occasion of a visit to Jane Austen's childhood home in Steventon, Hampshire:

"I put my hand down on Jane's desk and bring it up covered with dust. Oh that some of her genius might rub off on me! One would have imagined the devoted female custodian going round with her duster at least every other day. "

― Barbara Pym , A Very Private Eye: The Diaries, Letters And Notebooks Of Barbara Pym

3 " October. She knew that she dared not pray for humility, to be granted the grace of humility, it being such a precious thing, but when others were decorating the church for Harvest Festival she chose a humble, even humiliating task, emptying the cat’s tray, bundling the soiled Katlitta into a newspaper. Yet had she even chosen it – it was just something that had to be done. Whatever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might. "

― Barbara Pym , A Very Private Eye: The Diaries, Letters And Notebooks Of Barbara Pym

4 " The S. D. D. comes out in June, I’m told. Prepublication sales have been quite good and Cape are reissuing STG and Less Than Angels. I don’t think I shall ever be liable for VAT but I have bought a new account book (as advised in the last no. of The Author – I expect sales have shot up!). But the main thing is to feel that I am now regarded as a novelist, a good feeling after all those years of ‘This is well written, but… "

― Barbara Pym , A Very Private Eye: The Diaries, Letters And Notebooks Of Barbara Pym

5 " Just a line to say that Faber won’t take An Unsuitable Attachment – rather as I had feared, so I don’t feel too cast down. I can quite see that it wouldn’t be an economic proposition, and not the kind of book to impress a new publisher anyway. Charles Monteith wrote such a nice letter – thank you so much for introducing me to him and for all you have done on my behalf. I don’t know yet whether I shall try the book anywhere else – at the moment I don’t feel at all hopeful and have even thought how restful it would be never to write another word! But I expect I shall go on. The ideal is perhaps to be ‘at work’ on a book but never to finish it. "

― Barbara Pym , A Very Private Eye: The Diaries, Letters And Notebooks Of Barbara Pym