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BARBARA PYM (1913 - 1980) |
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Nationality: English Email: Click here to contact Website: Click here to visit |
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Literary Agent: n/a |
Barbara Mary Crampton Pym was born to Frederic and Irena Pym on June 2, 1913, in the town of Oswestry, Shropshire, on the Welsh border. Since Irena Pym was assistant organist at the parish church of St. Oswald, entertaining vicars and curates became part of Pym family life. In 1931, Barbara entered St. Hilda's College at Oxford, where she read English literature. She then returned to Oswestry where she began writing novels, but without initial success. When war overtook Europe in 1940, Barbara was assigned to the Censorship office at Bristol and decided to join the Wrens (Women's Royal Naval Service). In 1944, she was posted to Naples until the end of the war. After the war, Barbara took a job at the International African Institute in London, and soon became the assistant editor for the journal Africa. Her career as a published writer was then launched. Two years after her modest success as a writer, in 1963, Barbara submitted An Unsuitable Attachment to Jonathan Cape, her publisher; it was rejected as being out of step with the times. In all, twenty publishers refused to publish her latest novel. But despite the bleak future, she continued to write. In 1971 she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy; in 1974 she suffered a minor stroke. She then retired from the Institute and went to live with Hilary at her cottage in Finstock, Oxfordshire. In the January 21,1977 issue of the Times Literary Supplement, Barbara Pym was twice named (by Philip Larkin and Lord David Cecil) as "the most underrated novelist of the century." She emerged from "the wilderness" after sixteen years of obscurity, to almost instant fame and recognition. Only two years after her rediscovery, her cancer returned and this time, treatments were unsuccessful. She died at the Michael Sobell House, a hospice in Oxford, on January 11, 1980. She is buried in the churchyard at Finstock.
- thanks to Hazel Bell
Plays by Barbara Pym
Crampton Hodnet | ||
| 1st Produced: | Library, Lincoln Cathedral | 2002 | ||||
Company: | Barbara Pym Society | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #48461 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Comedy | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | playreading adapted (by Carol Bennett) from Barbara Pym's novel, performed by members of the Cathedral Library staff | |||||
Synopsis: | The stirrings of suburban emotions in Victorian Gothic houses of North Oxford | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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German Baron, The | ||
| 1st Produced: | Harverd Law School | 2006 | ||||
Company: | Barbara Pym Society of North America Conference | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #54685 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Adaptation | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 1 | Female | 3 | ||
Parts other: | narrator | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | Two English spinsters vie for the attentions of an enigmatic German baron at a mountain resort. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Mothers and Fathers | ||
| 1st Produced: | St Hilda's College, Oxford | 2004 | ||||
Company: | Barbara Pym Society | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #39150 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Comedy | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 7 | Female | 5 | ||
Parts other: | narrator | |||||
Notes: | Playreading adapted (by Yvonne Cocking) from an unpublished short story by Barbara Pym | |||||
Synopsis: | Pastiche of Ivy Compton-Burnett; stirring family secrets and passions are revealed | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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No Fond Return of Love | ||
| 1st Produced: | 1988 | |||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #60376 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Comedy Adaptation | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | 4 | ||
Parts other: | 1 woman remains silent | |||||
Notes: | adapted by Adrian Benjamin. Produced Man in the Moon Theatre, 1994 | |||||
Synopsis: | Two lady indexers investigate the life of an editor, whom one of them finally marries | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Parrot's Eggs' | ||
| 1st Produced: | St Hilda's College, Oxford | 2003 | ||||
Company: | Barbara Pym Society | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #48460 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Comedy | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 6 | Female | 3 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | Playreading adapted by Yvonne Cocking from an unbroadcast radio play by Barbara Pym. | |||||
Synopsis: | Satirises the posings and jealousies of a group of archaeologists which culminate in the wedding of two of the rivals | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Pilgrimage, The | ||
| 1st Produced: | St Hilda's College, Oxford | 2002 | ||||
Company: | Barbara Pym Society | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #48473 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Comedy | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 2 | Female | 4 | ||
Parts other: | narrator | |||||
Notes: | Playreading adapted (by Yvonne Cocking) from an unpublished story by Barbara Pym | |||||
Synopsis: | A devoted young lady fan of an author visits her idol, and is sadly disillusioned | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Some Tame Gazelle | ||
| 1st Produced: | St Hilda's College, Oxford | 2001 | ||||
Company: | Barbara Pym Society | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #48474 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Comedy | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 1 | Female | 3 | ||
Parts other: | male doubling | |||||
Notes: | Playreading adapted (by Elizabeth Proud) from Barbara Pym's novel | |||||
Synopsis: | Two sisters enjoy sub-romantic encounters with members of the clergy, but chose to remain spinsters | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Sweet Dove Died, The | ||
| 1st Produced: | St Hilda's College, Oxford (playreading) | 2007 | ||||
Company: | Barbara Pym Society | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #70668 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Comedy | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | 4 | ||
Parts other: | Narrator - m or f | |||||
Notes: | Playreading adapted by Yvonne Cocking and Bridget Villatoro from novel by Barbara Pym | |||||
Synopsis: | Elderly antique dealer Humphrey is much taken by elegant but ageing Leonora - but Leonora's fancy is more for Humphrey's nephew James - but James is gay and falls into the clutches of visiting American Ned. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Unsuitable Attachment, An | ||
| 1st Produced: | St Hilda's College, Oxford | 2005 | ||||
Company: | Guildford School of Acting | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #48475 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Comedy | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | playreading adapted (by Amanda Fawsett) from Barbara Pym's novel of the same title | |||||
Synopsis: | Parishioners of an unfashionable quarter of London fret over improbable attachments and visit Rome in a party | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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