Quartet in Autumn: Barbara Pym

With an introduction by Alexander McCall Smith, author of The No. 1 Ladies` Detective Agency series.

One did not drink sherry before the evening, just as one did not read a novel in the morning.

In 1970s London, Edwin, Norman, Letty and Marcia work in the same office and suffer the same problem - loneliness.

Lovingly and with delightful humour, Barbara Pym conducts us through their day-to-day existence: their preoccupations, their irritations, their judgements, and - perhaps most keenly felt - their worries about having somehow missed out on life as post-war Britain shifted around them.

Deliciously, blackly funny and full of obstinate optimism, Quartet in Autumn shows Barbara Pym`s sensitive artistry at its most sparkling. Its world is both extraordinary and familiar, revealing the eccentricities of everyday life.