Barbara Pym: A BBC Radio Drama Collection
Some Tame Gazelle, No Fond Return of Love, Crampton Hodnet & More
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Barbara Pym: A BBC Radio Drama Collection
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By:
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Barbara Pym
About this listen
Dramatisations and a reading of selected novels by Barbara Pym - plus bonus material.
Barbara Pym is one of the 20th-century's wittiest, and most underrated, novelists. Her perceptive comedies of manners, centred around the domestic lives and loves of unassuming middle-class Englishwomen, won her many devoted readers and saw her hailed as a modern-day Jane Austen. Yet she spent 15 years out of print in the 1960s and '70s, until Philip Larkin championed her work in the Times Literary Supplement. Her seventh novel was subsequently shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and writers from Jilly Cooper to Alexander McCall Smith continue to laud her talent today.
Included in this collection are the BBC Radio dramatisations of some of her most beloved books, including her debut Some Tame Gazelle; her second novel Crampton Hodnet, published posthumously in 1985; and its sequel Jane and Prudence. Alongside them are her fifth and sixth novels, A Glass of Blessings and No Fond Return of Love; and a comic spy thriller, So Very Secret. Adapted by actress and writer Elizabeth Proud, they feature stellar casts including Miriam Margolyes, Hannah Gordon, Samantha Bond, Rebecca Front, Joanna David, Penny Downie and Amanda Root.
Her best-known novel, Excellent Women, about a clergyman's daughter whose life is disturbed by anthropologists and a handsome naval officer, is read by One Foot in the Grave star Annette Crosbie. It is followed by a bonus biographical drama, The Resurrection of Miss Pym, starring Penelope Wilton and Bill Wallis and telling the story of Barbara Pym's warm friendship with Philip Larkin, her years in the publishing wilderness and her eventual triumphant rediscovery. And in the fascinating radio talk Finding a Voice, we hear from the author in her own words as she analyses her inspiration, influences, literary style and why she kept on writing 'even in the face of discouragement'.
Cast and credits:
Written by Barbara Pym.
Copyright © Barbara Pym 1950 (Some Tame Gazelle), 1953 (Jane and Prudence), 1958 (A Glass of Blessings), 1961 (No Fond Return of Love), 1987 (So Very Secret).
Crampton Hodnet copyright © Barbara Pym, Hilary Walton 1985, Hazel Holt 2004.
With thanks to the British Library for the sourcing of Crampton Hodnet.
Contents:
Some Tame Gazelle
Crampton Hodnet
Jane and Prudence
A Glass of Blessings
No Fond Return of Love
So Very Secret
Excellent Women
The Resurrection of Miss Pym
Finding a Voice
©2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2022 BBC Studios Distribution LtdListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about Barbara Pym: A BBC Radio Drama Collection
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- sue tid
- 22-11-23
Saner times
I thoroughly enjoyed this collection and sad when it ended but excited to hear barbara pym voice at the end
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 13-12-22
A BBC Radio Drama Collection
I love Barbara Pym’s novels but my enjoyment of this dramatised collection was spoiled by very variable sound quality. The adaptations were well done and well acted but sound recordings are much better now than they were some years ago.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 31-03-22
A great compilation
I love BBC dramas and adore Barbara Pym's novels - so what is not to like! I just wish the compilation included the rest of her books.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Starbuck
- 22-09-23
Thoroughly enjoyable listen
Thoroughly enjoyable listen while doing house work, chores walking the dog etc.
An interesting world view of the time illustrated in the writing.
Enjoyed most of the music that is interspersed throughout.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Highlight
- 29-03-22
EXCELLENT WITTY GOOD CLEAN FUN A BOUNTY OF A COLLECTION
This is a bounty of a collection for only one credit. 18 & half hours of good clean old fashioned fun from the past, about the middle classes when life was not as paranoid as it is now, but when people still held some parts of religion as the backbone of their lives and kept up with the Jones’s as men and women peeked from behind the lace curtains…
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Craftlover
- 18-07-22
Poor sound quality.
These are all good stories by Barbara Pym, but a lot has been lost in the abridgement for rather short radio dramas. Key aspects of the story and people's relationships are lost. But a really major problem is that certain characters, especially in Crampton Hodnet, drop their voice to talk in an aside to the audience or another character. This can only be heard by increasing the volume which is then too loud for the rest of the performance and needs to be done many times.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Giles
- 24-04-22
Hilarious!
Barbara Pym is still underrated.
This compilation had me chuckling and laughing aloud. A fantastic selection of actors makes this a joy.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Tom Wentworth
- 06-01-24
Witty, delightful listen; wrong credits
I’ve loved this collection of gentle and amusing dramatisations of Barbara Pym’s best known works. The stories are fantastic and the performances first rate!
However, some of the productions are wrongly credited. The dramatisation of Jane and Prudence included here is the 2008 production starring Emma Fielding and Susie Blake (narrated by Penelope Wilton) - not Rebecca Front and Samantha Bond as credited. It was produced by Chris Wallis and adapted by Jennifer Howarth.
Excellent Women is read here, not by Annette Crosbie as credited, but Deborah Findlay in a particularly fine reading. It was abridged and produced by Chris Wallis.
Please Audible check your announcements more carefully but thank you for this collection.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mrs. J. Eves
- 12-10-22
The voice within us all.
I have read, re-read and now listen again and again to the subtle character observations by Ms Pym, always I feel tinged with a certain sadness. This production is clear, crisp and totally in keeping with her style and manner. The added personal notes and in person interview compliment this series.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Peter
- 31-01-23
The Voice of Barbara Pym
Great introduction to the work of Pym. The dramatizations work in general, A little less music between the chapters would have been beter and I am not sure Annette Crosbie (who has a very distinctive voice) reads EXCELLENT WOMEN, it must be another (unidentified)) reader. I enjoyed A GLASS OF BLESSINGS with Joanna David best.
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