Quartet in Autumn: Picador Classic

With an introduction by Alexander McCall SmithOne did not drink sherry before the evening, just as one did not read a novel in the morning.In 1970s London Edwin, Norman, Letty and Marcia work in the same office and suffer the same problem – loneliness. Lovingly and with delightful humour, Pym conducts us through their day-to-day existence: their preoccupations, their irritations, their judgements, and – perhaps most keenly felt – their worries about having somehow missed out on life as post-war Britain shifted around them.Deliciously, blackly funny and full of obstinate optimism, Quartet in Autumn shows Barbara Pym’s sensitive artistry at its most sparkling. A classic from one of Britain’s most loved and highly acclaimed novelists, its world is both extraordinary and familiar, revealing the eccentricities of everyday life.

Reviews of Quartet in Autumn: Picador Classic

Barbara Pym's unpretentious, subtle, accomplished novels . . . are for me the finest examples of high comedy to have appeared in England during the past 75 years…spectacular * Sunday Times * Barbara Pym has a sharp eye for the exact nuances of social behaviour * The Times * The wit and style of a twentieth century Jane Austen * Harpers & Queen * Very funny and keenly observant of the ridiculous as well as the pathetic in humanity * Financial Times * A spare masterpiece of loneliness in retirement * Telegraph * Quartet in Autumn is immeasurably her finest work of fiction * Evening Standard * An alert miniaturist … her novels have a distinctive flavour, as instantly recognisable as lapsang tea * Daily Telegraph *