“ How absurd and delicious it is to be in love with somebody younger than yourself. Everybody should try it. Barbara Pym
“ It was the ring on the left hand that people at the Old Girls' Reunion looked for. Often, in fact nearly always, it was an uninteresting ring, sometimes no more than the plain gold band or the very sm… Barbara Pym
“ Letty allowed her to ramble on while she looked around the wood, remembering its autumn carpet of beech leaves and wondering if it could be the kind of place to lie down in and prepare for death when… Barbara Pym
“ A room in Holmhurst was the last thing she'd come to - better to lie down in the wood under the beech leaces and the bracken and wait quietly for death. Barbara Pym
“ It seemed so much safer and more comfortable to live in the lives of other people - to observe their joys and sorrows with detachment as if one were watching a film or a play. Barbara Pym
“ But at least it made one realize that life still held infinite possibilities for change. Barbara Pym
“ She knew exactly how she ought to feel, for she was well read in our greater and lesser English poets, but the unfortunate fact was that she did not really like being kissed at all. Barbara Pym
“ One did not drink sherry before the evening, just as one did not read a novel in the morning. Barbara Pym
“ The conversation did not go very well and I began telling him about the people with their trays in the great cafeteria and suggesting that it would have done us more good to go there to be put in mind… Barbara Pym
“ I realised that one might love him secretly with no hope of encouragement, which can be very enjoyable for the young or inexperienced. Barbara Pym
“ He certainly is very charming, but he makes me feel slightly ill at ease—almost as if I were a woman manquée, if there could be such a thing—you know, something lacking in me.""Oh, well, that's hardly… Barbara Pym
“ You know Mildred would never do anything wrong or foolish. I reflected a little sadly that this was only too true and hoped I did not appear too much that kind of person to others. Virtue is an excell… Barbara Pym
“ Once outside the magic circle the writers became their lonely selves, pondering on poems, observing their fellow men ruthlessly, putting people they knew into novels; no wonder they were without frien… Barbara Pym
“ Oh, this coming back to an empty house,' Rupert thought, when he had seen her safely up to her door. People - though perhaps it was only women - seemed to make so much of it. As if life itself were no… Barbara Pym
“ We, my dear Mildred, are the observers of life. Let other people get married by all means, the more the merrier. . . . Let Dora marry if she likes. She hasn't your talent for observation. Barbara Pym
“ Prue hadn't really been in love with Fabian. Indeed, it was obvious that at times she found him both boring and irritating. But wasn't that what so many marriages were - finding a person boring and ir… Barbara Pym
“ I stretched out my hand towards the little bookshelf where I kept cookery and devotional books, the most comfortable bedside reading. Barbara Pym
