The Barbara Pym Cookbook

Barbara Pym's sister Hilary teams with cookbook author Honor Wyatt to bring together this mouthwatering collection of family recipes, memories, and anecdotes drawn from Pym's diaries and letters, as well her most acclaimed novels Straight from the kitchen of Barbara Pym, this winning cookbook delivers a delectable treat for readers who like their meals served with a generous helping of literary aplomb. Sharing favorite family recipes that Pym incorporated into her novels, The Barbara Pym Cookbook reveals how the author's life intersected with those of her memorable characters. Inside you'll find British classics such as steak and kidney pie, plum cake, sausage rolls, and toad-in-the-hole-dishes that Pym's characters would often prepare for each other. Other treats, such as moussaka and risotto, reflect Pym's fascination with Greece and Italy. Throughout, the recipes are interwoven with references to Pym's novels; Dulcie's musings on "love apples" from No Fond Return of Love accompany directions for tomatoes a la Provencale, for instance. There are glimpses of Pym's personal life, too, such as her description of kipper pate for lunch with Philip Larkin. The Barbara Pym Cookbook is a must-have for both budding cooks and Pym aficionados. "A treat for devotees of Pym . . . whimsically presented . . . where the 'small things of life, ' cooking among them, are reckoned 'often so much bigger than the great things.'" -Publishers Weekly Barbara Pym (1913-1980) was a bestselling and award-winning English novelist. Her first book, Some Tame Gazelle (1950), launched her career as a writer beloved for her social comedies of class and manners. Pym is the only author to be named twice in a Times Literary Supplement list of "the most underrated novelists of the century." She produced thirteen novels, the last three published posthumously. Her 1977 novel Quartet in Autumn was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.