The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym by Paula Byrne – the ‘modern Jane Austen’?

This excellent cradle-to-grave biography of a much loved novelist who goes in and out of fashion captures her alarming habits and tormented love affairsIn 1971 the author Barbara Pym was at her day job at the International African Institute when she noticed “Mr C” laboriously attacking his lunchtime sandwich with a knife and fork. Pym made a mental note of the detail before asking herself ruefully, “Oh why can’t I write about things like that any more – why is this kind of thing no longer acceptable?” Ten years earlier, Jonathan Cape had dumped her after her sixth book on the grounds that her brand of anthropological observation of English social manners was old lady-ish, dull and didn’t sell. As an extra humiliation, no other publishing house had been interested in picking up Miss Pym: books built on “the daily round of trivial things” could hardly compete with Frederick Forsyth’s The Day of the Jackal or, if you were feeling fancy, Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. Jonathan Cape had even published John Lennon (Pym liked the Beatles, but still). Clearly there was no place in contemporary literature for Mr C and his oddly formal way with a sandwich.There is nothing unusual about major minor novelists having a disappointing and disproportionate decline, followed by a posthumous flowering in reputation and sales. What’s unusual about Pym is that her phoenix moment came while she was still alive. In 1977 the Times Literary Supplement asked well-known... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2021-04-08 06:30:07 UTC ]

Other news stories related to: "The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym by Paula Byrne – the ‘modern Jane Austen’?"

Summer reading: dive into the perfect book

As publishers vie to persuade us to pack their titles for the holidays, we chart the evolution of the ’beach read’Summer reads, beach reads, holiday reads … at this time of year, the publishing world works itself into a sweat trying to force its novels into our carry-on luggage, or over the... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-07-14 07:00:23 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Can Sci-Fi Writers Prepare Us for an Uncertain Future?

Businesses and public policy makers are tapping novelists to imagine the path forward. But how much stock should we put in the predictions of storytellers? Continue reading at Wired

[ Wired | 2019-07-12 13:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

The Writers Who Left: Cuban Exile and What Comes Next, by Margaret Randall

Cultural Cross Sections Margaret Randall Children’s choir at the 2014 La Matanza Book Fair / Photo by Mauro Rico / Ministerio de Cultura de la Nación / Flickr When good engineers or scientists emigrate, they are able to continue their work. Novelists... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2019-07-10 21:07:28 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Are millennials really driving ‘cancel culture’ - or is it their overcautious critics?

Older generations argue that young people’s insistence on equality in all things – including books – threatens to stifle free speech. But is that always true?I wouldn’t normally air my dirty literary linen in public, but here goes. When I finished writing my novel Putney, about a 13-year-old... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-07-10 10:03:01 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Johnson signs new two-book deal with Jonathan Cape

Ana Fletcher, senior editor at Jonathan Cape, has bought two books from Man Booker-shortlisted author Daisy Johnson. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-08 09:17:38 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Viewfinders: 10 Y.A. Novelists Spin Fiction From Vintage Photos

The New York Times invited Asian-American authors to choose photos from our archives and write short young-adult fiction inspired by them. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2019-06-28 17:18:37 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Adam wins Desmond Elliott Prize for 'electrifying' debut Golden Child

Claire Adam has won the £10,000 Desmond Elliott Prize for first-time novelists with her "electrifying" debut Golden Child (Faber). Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-06-18 18:50:22 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Cape snaps up Henry Mance's animal rights debut in six-way auction

Jonathan Cape will publish "a far-reaching and wonderfully entertaining investigation" into animal rights by award-winning Financial Times journalist Henry Mance following a six-way auction. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-06-18 00:53:19 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Jurors Announced for the 2020 Neustadt Prize

News and Events WLT Norman, Okla. (June 11, 2019) – Robert Con Davis-Undiano, Neustadt Professor and executive director of the World Literature Today organization at the University of Oklahoma, this week announced the names of nine writers to be the jury... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2019-06-10 16:04:37 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Cape to publish Don Quixote-inspired novel from Rushdie

Jonathan Cape will publish Salman Rushdie’s new Don Quixote-inspired novel, Quichotte, in August. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Franklin: 'I wouldn't publish Lolita today'

Jonathan Cape's Dan Franklin has said he wouldn't be able to publish Vladimir Nabokov's controversial classic Lolita - about a man's obsession with a 12-year-old girl - were he to be offered it today, because of the #MeToo phenomenon and changing attitudes among a younger generation. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Cape wins 'heated' five-way auction for biologist Raihani’s debut

Jonathan Cape has triumphed in a five-way auction for award-winning evolutionary biologist Nichola Raihani’s debut Together: How Cooperation Shaped Humankind. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Cape unveils Briggs' long-awaited collection Time for Lights Out

Jonathan Cape will publish Raymond Briggs' long-awaited Time for Lights Out in November, 13 years after the illustrator and author started work on the book about age and death. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-02-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Raymond Briggs's final book, which faces death 'head-on', due this year

Collection of short pieces, which has been in the works for more than a decade, takes stock of The Snowman author’s lifeRaymond Briggs is one of the UK’s most beloved children’s authors, the creator of characters from The Snowman to Fungus the Bogeyman. But in his forthcoming book Time for... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-02-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Ex-Blackwell's bookseller scoops its Book of the Year

Former Blackwell’s bookseller Daisy Johnson has won the retailer’s Book of the Year for her "outstanding" Man Booker-shortlisted novel Everything Under (Jonathan Cape). Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-12-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Neurosurgeon Henry Marsh moves to Jonathan Cape for latest title

Jonathan Cape has acquired a third book from writer and neurosurgeon Henry Marsh, author of the hugely successful Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery (2014) and its follow-up Admissions: A Life in Brain Surgery (2017), both published with Weidenfeld & Nicholson. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-09-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Cape to publish 'battle cry for difficult women'

Jonathan Cape has acquired Difficult Women, a history of modern feminism by journalist Helen Lewis. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-09-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

'Fine mind and right skills blend' won Bowler Faber post

Alex Bowler's "fine and curious mind", and the mix of skills he brought from his previous roles at both Jonathan Cape and Granta, together won him the coveted Faber publisher post, chief executive Stephen Page has said. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-05-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Winterson’s take on Frankenstein to Cape

Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein will be published simultaneously by Jonathan Cape in the UK and Grove Atlantic in the US in autumn 2019. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this