Deb Fisher and Triona Adams (Barbara Pym Society)

Tiny In All That Air

In this episode, Lyn talks to Deb Fisher, Chair of the Barbara Pym Society and writer and actor Triona Adams, also a member of the Barbara Pym Society. We discuss how it was Larkin who initiated the friendship between the two writers in 1961 when he wrote a letter to Pym admiring her novels. Both Oxford graduates, and resolutely unmarried, they communicated by letter for 14 years until they finally met in person at the Randolph Hotel in Oxford. In 1977, the Times Literary Supplement printed an article where contributors named who they considered the most underrated writers of the previous seventy-five years. Pym was the only living writer to appear on the list twice, chosen by Lord David Cecil and Philip Larkin. Larkin praised her “unique eye and ear for the small poignancies and comedies of everyday life.” Their friendship, although mainly on paper, was remarkably kind and supportive, underpinned by their love of tradition, domesticity and of each others’ work. We talk about the qualities of Pym's writing, her life and loves, and her lasting legacy, with loyal readers and researchers all around the world today.

References:

The novels of Barbara Pym from Crampton Hodnet (written 1940) to A Few Green Leaves (1980), BBC R4 Women’s Hour, Andrew Motion A Writer’s Life (1994), Paula Byrne The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym (2021), Hazel Holt A Lot to Ask: A Life of Barbara Pym (1990), Barbara Pym A Very Private Eye: An Autobiography in Diaries and Letters (1984)

Oliver Ford Davies as Philip Larkin Theatre review: Larkin with Women at Orange Tree, Richmond

Theatre review: Larkin with Women at Orange Tree, Richmond

Larkin poems referred to: Church Going, Ambulances

The Barbara Pym Society https://barbara-pym.org/

2022 Spring Meeting; 30 April 2022: University Women's Club, Mayfair, London 'We Used To Correspond 'The Pym-Larkin letters, featuring Triona Adams and Ben Willbond (Horrible Histories/Ghosts) – please see the website for full details.

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Presented by Lyn Lockwood.

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

Audio editing by Simon Galloway.

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Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/