My favourite writer . . . I pick up her books with joy
- Jilly Cooper,
I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym
- Richard Osman,
I'd sooner read a new Barbara Pym than a new Jane Austen
- Philip Larkin,
Barbara Pym is the rarest of treasures; she reminds us of the heartbreaking silliness of everyday life
- Anne Tyler,
'Brilliant, hilarious and so very, very English
Daily Mail
Her best [novels] are sheer delight, and all of them companionable. Quiet, paradoxical, funny and sad, they have the iron in them of permanence too
- John Updike,
Brilliant, hilarious, poignant and so very, very English
Time Magazine
[Pym] makes me smile, laugh out loud, consider my own foibles and fantasies, and, above all, suffer real regret when I reach the final page. Of how many authors can you honestly say that?
- Mavis Cheek,
Beneath the gentle surfaces of her novels is a slow-building comedy, salt wit in a saline drip
New York Times
A splendid humorous writer
- John Betjeman,
A modern Jane Austen
- Alexander McCall Smith,