{"podcast":{"title":"Slightly Foxed","slug":"slightly-foxed-725618","podcast_index_feed_id":725618,"rss_url":"https://audioboom.com/channels/4974324.rss","website_url":"https://audioboom.com/channels/4974324","image_url":"https://audioboom.com/i/33763391.jpg","author":"Slightly Foxed: The Real Reader's Quarterly","episode_count":60,"summary":"The independent-minded book review magazine that combines good looks, good writing and a personal approach. Slightly Foxed introduces its readers to books that are no longer new and fashionable but have lasting appeal. Good-humoured, unpretentious and a bit eccentric, it’s more like a well-read friend than a literary magazine. Come behind the scenes with the staff of Slightly Foxed to learn what makes this unusual literary magazine tick, meet some of its varied friends and contributors, and hear their personal recommendations for favourite and often forgotten books that have helped, haunted, informed or entertained them. For more information about Slightly Foxed visit: foxedquarterly.com","last_synced_at":"2026-07-15T18:20:50.929915+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/slightly-foxed-725618"},"episode":{"title":"41: Barbara Pym and Other Excellent Women","slug":"41-barbara-pym-and-other-excellent-women","published_at":"2022-04-15T07:30:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/slightly-foxed-725618/41-barbara-pym-and-other-excellent-women","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/slightly-foxed-725618","url":"https://audioboom.com/posts/8064848","audio_url":"https://audioboom.com/posts/8064848.mp3?modified=1652345802&sid=4974324&source=rss","summary":"A latter-day Austen, an academic, a romantic, a comic, a caustic chronicler of the commonplace . . . The novelist Barbara Pym became beloved and Booker Prize-nominated in the late twentieth century, yet many rejections, years in the literary wilderness and manuscripts stored in linen cupboards preceded her revival. Paula Byrne, author of The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym , and Lucy Scholes, critic, Paris Review columnist and editor at McNally Editions, join the Slightly Foxed team to plumb the depths and scale the peaks of Barbara Pym’s writing, life and loves. From Nazi Germany to the African Institute; from London’s bedsit land to parish halls; from unrequited love affairs with unsuitable men to an epistolary friendship with Philip Larkin; and from rejection by Jonathan Cape to overnight success via the TLS , we trace Pym’s life through her novels, visiting the Bodleian and Boots lending libraries along the way. There’s joy in Some Tame Gazelle , loneliness in Quartet in Autumn , and humour and all human experience in between, with excellent women consistently her theme. We then turn from Pym to other writers under or above the radar, finding darkness in Elizabeth Taylor, tragicomedy in Margaret Kennedy and real and surreal rackety lives in Barbara Comyns. To round out a cast of excellent women, we discover Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca was foretold in Elizabeth von Arnim’s Vera , and we recommend an eccentric trip with Jane Bowles and her Two Serious Ladies , as well as theatrical tales from a raconteur in Eileen Atkins’s memoir. (Episode duration: 57 minutes; 16 seconds) Books Mentioned We may be able to get hold of second-hand copies of the out-of-print titles listed below. Please get in touch with Jess in the Slightly Foxed office for more information. Flora Thomp…","meta_description":"A latter-day Austen, an academic, a romantic, a comic, a caustic chronicler of the commonplace . . . The novelist Barbara Pym became beloved and Booker Pr…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3436,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/slightly-foxed-725618/episodes/41-barbara-pym-and-other-excellent-women/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/slightly-foxed-725618/41-barbara-pym-and-other-excellent-women.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}