An Academic Question

  • Author Barbara Pym, Introduced by Kate Saunders
  • Narrator Jilly Bond
  • Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
  • Run Time 4 hours and 48 minutes
  • Format Audio
  • Genre Modern and contemporary fiction.
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What to expect

INTRODUCED BY KATE SAUNDERS


'I am a huge fan of Barbara Pym' RICHARD OSMAN


In a provincial university town, Caro Grimstone, a dissatisfied faculty wife, becomes the unwilling accomplice to her husband Alan's ambitions. When she volunteers to read to a blind, esteemed anthropologist in a nursing home, Alan seizes the opportunity to steal his papers - research that could both advance his reputation while refuting the findings of a respected colleague. A delightful comedy of manners with a touch of mystery, An Academic Question is prime Barbara Pym territory.


'She is the rarest of treasures; she reminds us of the heartbreaking silliness of everyday life' ANNE TYLER


'My favourite writer . . . I pick up her books with joy' JILLY COOPER


'Beneath the gentle surfaces of her novels is a slow-building comedy, salt wit in a saline drip' NEW YORK TIMES

Critics Review

  • Beneath the gentle surfaces of her novels is a slow-building comedy, salt wit in a saline drip

    New York Times
  • My favourite writer . . . I pick up her books with joy

    Jilly Cooper
  • She is the rarest of treasures; she reminds us of the heartbreaking silliness of everyday life

    ANNE TYLER
  • I am a huge fan of Barbara Pym

    RICHARD OSMAN
  • A splendid humorous writer

    John Betjeman
  • A modern Jane Austen

    Alexander McCall Smith

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