Hazel Holt (1928–2015)

2020 has become my year of rereading the novels of Barbara Pym, my favourite novelist - "favourite" in the sense of "speaks most to my soul", not as in "greatest" or "best"; I believe she would have appreciated the distinction. This is my revised review.

A frustrating but nevertheless important biography.

First of all, if you haven't read Pym's 12 novels, go seek them out (preferably in order). Then read her collected unpublished works - [b:Civil to Strangers and Other Writings|178573|Civil to Strangers and Other Writings|Barbara Pym|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1442721152l/178573._SY75_.jpg|2819723] - and the posthumous "autobiography" compiled from Pym's letters and diaries, [b:A Very Private Eye: The Diaries, Letters And Notebooks Of Barbara Pym|227003|A Very Private Eye The Diaries, Letters And Notebooks Of Barbara Pym|Barbara Pym|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1282285490l/227003._SY75_.jpg|868494]. If all of this does not satisfy you, read this volume too.

This 1990 biography, by Pym's close friend and literary executor Hazel Holt (with input from Pym's sister Hilary), came 10 years after the author's death, and was the conclusion of a decade in which a variety of unpublished and secondary works were released into the market. Brits and - especially - Americans - were fascinated by the legend of Miss Pym, a moderately successful spinster author, neglected for 16 years, and rediscovered in 1977, only to pass away three years later.

As with her novels, Pym's biography must be one of seemingly small details pointing to a much larger story. The desire to be a writer since childhood, fulfilled to underwhelming sales in the 1950s, and then neglected for almost two decades before sudden fame. The endless series of love affairs, in which Pym was either underwhelmed (she declined several proposals in her 20s) or overwhelmed (one young gay man, much her junior, essentially "ghosts" her after taking an extended trip overseas, to get away from her attentions). The sensible editorial assistant who can quote Milton or Keats, yet has an admirably silly side when it comes to creating stories about strange people on the bus or the lives of her cats. The passionate force restrained firmly in a tweed jacket.

This is an interesting volume, I note, and has a place of honour on my shelf alongside the matching covers of Pym's complete works. Yet much is missing. First, of course, is objectivity. True - Pym's life is not one beset by scandal! Nevertheless, the closeness of the author to her subject means we are seeing something approaching hagiography. (It does, however, allow Holt to add in her own memories of working with Pym for several years, and of Pym's psychological state during the "wilderness years" and in the final, grim months before her passing.)

Second, and most importantly, this biography is missing much detail. As Holt notes in her preface, this is a companion to A Very Private Eye. This is primarily to fill in the gaps of that first volume, and put some of the core moments of Barbara's life into a chronology. Which is great, but it leaves this book rather assuming a degree of knowledge in the reader.

Finally, and personally most affecting, is that I yearn for a biographer to chart Pym's writings - both analytically, and also in psychological relation to the author. Holt doesn't avoid this entirely. She discusses the transition from Pym's early novels (mostly unpublished except for her first sale, Some Tame Gazelle) to the more mature post-war novels starting with her second (Excellent Women) as well as noting the connections between real-life figures and their fictional counterparts. No book can be everything, but I would have enjoyed a greater understanding of, for instance, whether Pym's younger characters still spoke to her as she became older, how much she is reflected in her crueller characters, such as the deluded Leonora in The Sweet Dove Died or the frosty Wilmet in A Glass of Blessings, and just what it is about Pym's technique that has earned her much love but also some disdain. At the end of the day, Holt has written a biography of a woman who happened to be an author. This is very valuable, but I would now like to see the inverse.

Anyhow, that time will come. (Perhaps I should do it myself?) I find it hard to explain this review; I feel as if I have written something both entirely positive and entirely negative. So I must abandon this, simply encouraging you to read the novelist, and then appreciate this biography as an early insight - hopefully not the last we get.… (mere)

Fun little story, written in letters, with snippets from Jane Austen's letters thrown in for verisimilitude. You can't always tell the difference between the Austen quotes and the author's voice, so that's a good sign!!
I often enjoy epistolary novels, but they can create a distance between me and the action, and characters may not seem fully realized. That was unfortunately the case here, which prevented me from really getting into the story. But it was pleasant enough, and a fairly quick read.
The author's Regency voice is very good!!
There's an extremely mild mystery going on, and shades of Emma and Persuasion.… (mere)

When her internationally known journalist husband dies shortly after his retirement, Eva Jackson returns to Taviscombe, where she grew up. One of her many tasks is to sort through her husband’s papers, but she simply cannot face it yet and asks old friend Sheila Malory and cousin Rosemary, Sheila’s best friend, to help her lug the boxes into the shed, where she promptly forgets them. Soon after that, there is an unfortunate fire in the shed, apparently due to faulty wiring, but the papers aren’t damaged and the same group removes them to the house for safekeeping. And soon after *that*, Eva is dead, from leaving her diabetes untreated while suffering a respiratory illness, and her son Daniel and his partner Patrick move into the cottage, only to have patterns repeating themselves….This is the 20th and final volume of the Mrs. Malory mystery series, ended not because anything drastic happens to the main characters but because Ms. Holt herself died. As a finale, it weaves in all the elements of this cozy series: comfortable relationships between villagers, a generally benign look at small-town life (including such mundane matters as cleaning one’s kitchen cupboards and preparing coffee mornings at the local town hall), and an inquisitive amateur detective who happens to know everybody in the village and whom everybody feels comfortable confiding in. Plus, as happens frequently in this series, a solution that seems to come out of left field but that is completely reasonable upon consideration. I shall miss Sheila Malory and her friends and her pets - and Taviscombe too! Recommended.… (mere)