MISS PYM'S DAY OUT (Patricia Routledge) (1991)

I've been trying to write novels with many ups and downs over more than 40 years I started as a schoolgirl when I used to contribute to the school magazine mostly parodies conscious even then of other people's styles last week I had tea with an old lady when I came upon her she was engaged in doing some very beautiful embroidery jacobi an embroidery I think it's called although I'm really not qualified to speak of such things I remarked how beautiful her work was how much more beautiful than any I'd seen before she told me what she considered to be the secret of good work I wondered if I might pass on to you her exact words I think she summed it up really rather well some people don't put in enough stitches she said so that the rich affect is lost and it looks rather thin I like to put in as much as I can so that everything looks really well filled some people don't put in enough stitches isn't that true of many of us and our lives pieces of embroidery that we have to fill in ourselves can we truthfully say that we always put in enough stitches are there not in all of our lives patches that look thin and are not properly filled I've sometimes wondered whether novelists like to be remembered for what they've said or because they've said it in their own particular way in their own distinctive voice but how do you acquire your own voice or indeed any kind of voice as a whole if you think of the richness of some very beautiful embroidery you will find that the color the fine statuary that has been put into it the labor of love that has made it what it is a thing of beauty is a joy forever so the PERT Keats tells us it's loveliness increases it will never pass into nothing's the Anglican Church and English literature are the two most important things in my life what did you think of the sermon I never knew the vicarage so much portray in him feel odd fish look at the building that lady's happened indiscreet didn't become the baby can't be sure he was holding her and who is the lady oh she's a widow and this is gray was come to live in the flats of Icarus Oh oh there's nothing wrong in that well of course there isn't dangerous creatures videos hmm they seem to have the knack of capturing a man having done it once they can always do it again I suppose there's nothing to it when you know how was I'm ending a fuse soon even its large rooms have a bit of fun yes but I don't think our clergyman is the marrying sort and besides mrs. gray doesn't look at all suitable what is the matter with you I would love with the vicar of course I believe you've been saving in one good morning I'd like to buy some flowers my name would you like into a rattle fuzz indoors for Indonesia's chrysanthemums carnations are those irises are likely to house use there's a 50 pence abundant should I have two bunches he meets fixed up before yes I've been finstock several times since the Timlin sisters caps you know them engine is Barbara used to write to to Finland teach at the University there are most amusing that turns in there the kind of crazy streak there's no choice very very funny unfortunately I bent the beginning of the of the war I don't started not get the even drink upon any trade miss bead I'm sure you must have realized have noticed that is my preference for you above all the other ladies of the village no I didn't think I have in any case you can hardly know me very well or he would realize there's nothing very special about me ah well one can hardly look for beauty at my time of life she is not fair to outward view or how's that Wordsworth Coleridge hardly can reach I think although I am not particularly beautiful myself I must confess that I do like to see beauty in other people you mean the beauty of character yes that is something we all like to see no I mean beauty of person and perhaps you will be unable to accept what I offer uh-huh I'm afraid I don't understand perhaps you're unaccustomed to receiving such offers or perhaps it is a long time since you last had one after all this is a small country village unlikely to meet many strangers that may be but I think I can say I've had my share in the past that is though naturally not lately I don't think I'd better speak more plainly I am asking you to marry me I hope but I couldn't my dear you are equal to being the wife of a bishop you need have no fears on that account when I was a younger man I used to have views on the celibacy of the clergy young-kyu which often do you know but a man does need a helpmate remember Paradise Lost Paradise Lost I think when one has reached riper years things are different I think I'm afraid I can't marry you I don't love you but you respect and like me we need not speak of love how one can hardly expect that now no I suppose one can't expected but you see I did love somebody once perhaps I still do well there's nothing more intimidating than a clergyman on the loose oh please beginning no God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform yeah you could have time to look in at the bizarre before communing with a high and mighty of course Henry Barbara I thought you ought to have some flowers how lovely you shouldn't have come into some conflict what about this book a thing you are doing this evening you're doing public in a big way aren't you I bought a new flowers from the jumble sale 4 pounds 90 from CNA congratulations come in pick them as if you had a sword upstairs in water know how how all these things been happening you've you have been doing what I've just been doing my local history and so on but it's far birthday today I bail again he's gonna be heavy here's an idea for her novel a woman living in the country who has had a hopeless love for a man wife still living perhaps or religious scruples then when he is free she finds that after all he means nothing to her is this the reward of virtue this nothingness or an enviable wish you luck thank you help need it now that you'll need it I'm sure your witness I don't know traveler all literature is all about failure Oh what is the heart at damp cave with things growing in it mysterious secrets of love or whatever you like or a dusty lumber room full of junk or a neat orderly place like a desk with a place for everything and everything in its place something might be ending now that has lingered on through many years dying sometimes and then coming back again like a twinge of rheumatism in the winter a great love that was unrequited might well be like that how is she real name Hillary I think she's pretty well I think you could say that she's in remission and I think having this Booker Prize coming up as they later Norman that's 30 grand for and yeah she she's obviously and you know she's cheered up but it doesn't mean very good form I don't think she'll enjoy that or dinner very much because she hasn't got much appetite I'm fair that's nasty I notice that for some time yes I running if she would like perhaps to come with me on one of these bargain breaks oh cool I'm sure she would I think that's an excellent idea yeah yes some tame gazelle or some gentle dove something to love Oh something to love of course there are people from whom one asks no fond return of love just to be allowed to love them is enough people blame one for dwelling on trivialities but life is made up of them and if we've had one great sorrow or one great love then who shall blame us if we only want the trivial things we really also true that have us visit something I wonder if you might sign a few books right how nice it is to see so many excellent world there are some people who will always remain on the outside of things eventually we are all thrown back on ourselves it's grateful the way people send their relations to jumble sales how can they do it look at another one here it's a clergyman to fighting young and cure just out of the air gosh and English someone we knew not anything where mum founded just lying on a stall but Ashley you've made one of your sponges it looks quite nice you look so much better well I suppose one is just born with a light touch any luck with the bishop whoo I think knowledge it is a wicked thing to want time to pass and not to enjoy ones days now I try to make things to look forward to however small well the marmalade isn't said it as well this year wonder why of course I'm not a great marmalade eater at the best of time he knows the best I'm petite anomaly involved with him yes I am my name is Julie Cooper I sounded fantastic fan of yours and and I love your books I just want to wish you best of luck to the book as much well miss PIM we've got relatively good news on both fronts now I am pleased we're past the immediate danger with your cancer and although there's no guarantee that it won't crop up again you are now in remission good now as far as your hearts concerned I've also got the results of your 24-hour ECG there are some irregularities and although this can't be cured it can be controlled by fitting you with a pacemaker you know what that is sounds a little alarming no no it doesn't at all it's just a very small electric signal box which helps the heart beat more efficiently it may sound rather a bionic but the heart itself isn't cut open or interfered with in fact it's a relatively simple operation splendid the only strange thing is that the batteries must be removed after death otherwise they tend to explode in the crematorium rather like something out of a novel oh hell you could use it in one of yours a well might in the meantime the important thing is to try not to get too excited no strong tea or coffee and of course I know I've said this before no cigarettes I'll try I know good luck thank you on the crowded train a man gave up his seat - I am Z and she accepted it gracefully she expected courtesy for men and often received it It was as if they realized that she was not for the rough-and-tumble of this world like the aggressive women with shaggy hairstyles who pushed their way through life thrusting their hard shopping baskets at defenseless men the man who had offered her his seat might have noticed s-- the dark hair was touched with grey and although she was not exactly smart there was a kind of elegance about her of course no one ever tells you how long you've actually got it may be several years yet and as I don't want to live to be very old it's really not so bad in some ways I feel a bit foolish looking and seeming so well as if people are going to come up and say what you still here Oh most merciful God who according to the multitude of thy mercies thus so put away the sins of those who truly repent that thou remembers them no more open thine eye of mercy upon this thy servant who most earnestly desired of pardon and forgiveness renew in her most loving father whatsoever have been decayed by the fraud and malice of the devil or by her own carnal will and frailness preserve and continue this sick member in the unity of the church consider her contrition accept her tears assuage her pain as she'll seem to the most expedient for her and for as much as she put her full trust only in thy mercy impute not unto her her former sins but strengthen her with thy blessed spirit and when thou art pleased to take her hence take her unto thy favour through the merits of thy most dearly beloved son Jesus Christ our Lord amen hazal here's the proofs I'm sorry they're a bit late I have been very busy I think you'll like them thank you thank you very much okay goodness correcting proofs yes they've got the kinship diagrams wrong with course of course oh this place hasn't changed I could just sit down and get to work but nothing does change if s affords it's difficult server library staff come and go I'm astronomers Claire there are still two Hambridge the no-man's land where writer an anthropologist meet strange it was here that I learned how essential it is to cultivate an attitude of detachment towards life and people how the novelist can even do fieldwork as the anthropologist does International African Institute yes today's lecture is by Bishop grote oh good heavens he's your bishop isn't it um yes talking about his time in East Africa yeah one o'clock yes goodbye why don't I come too but that's been nice it'll stop your brooding about this evening I can only stay for a bit I should think a bit a bit quite enough I want you all to imagine that you are guests at a great in the Wawa wedding the climate of the Wawa is temperate and the soil very third time when I say temperate I dare say a great many of you might find it rather hard the language is very suitable for singing it is soft and pleasing vowels and liquid sounds predominating the chief instrument is the mama mhm mhm a nowadays say some of you might like to know what the language actually sounds like so I am going to sing for you a few verses of a song which the Ambala use adapt for many occasions births marriages deaths all the great events of this mortal life try and imagine that you are the bride at this great what is the future for my kind of writing what can my notebooks contain except the normal kinds of bits and pieces that can never be worked into fiction perhaps in retirement a quieter narrower kind of life can be adopted bounded by English literature and the Anglican Church and small simple pleasures hypothermia a person found dead we want to be careful we don't get hypothermia the thing you can't and I can't well if you were found dead of it like this old woman here as I said that's one thing we've got in common then Johnson being found dead of hypothermia the things people say I never have tea I never eat Jam I never watch television I never read novels as she yet she turned the pages of a book of Coventry Patmore's poems after a while she stopped reading and became conscious of herself sitting alone at a table that could have held to she was still young enough and when does one become too old to wonder if people were looking at her and asking themselves who is that interesting looking woman sitting alone and reading Coventry Patmore my husband was in India and in Africa but no matter how many animals he felt the still seemed to be more but it would be a terrible thing if they became extinct I suppose they keep the rarer animals and game reserves but it's not the animals so much as the birds now you'll hardly believe this was that pretty but I was sitting in my window this morning and as it was a fine day I had it open at the bottom when I felt something drop into my lap and do you know what it was no idea unpleasantness from a bird you see it had done something when I was actually sitting in my own drawing room well annoyed and bird stop the worst of it in the paper this morning Oh bites woman and yesterday morning Swann knocks girl off bicycle now what do you think I suppose they were just accidents accidents oh I think they're rather more than accidents the Dominion of the birds that's what we're up against what's a grunty I eat as many birds as possible I have them sent from Harrods off Northland isn't sometimes I go and look at the minute Ella meets Department oh they do them up there approached earlier with that's Italian decorations but released I can eat my enemies I'm only going to the Booker because it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to mix with the literary world perhaps it is better to die in one sixties if I were to say bruised or incapacitated I wouldn't be able to bear it I couldn't be splendid about it as women are expected to be we're just about ready Clive Richard yep Jeff fine okay turn over okay Puka 77 slate 23 take one Barbara PIM is a very English novelist her world is one of tea parties and jumble sales spinsters and Vickers it's a delicately observed miniature landscape full of gentle humor and quiet pathos Barbara PIM came to literary prominence in the 1950s but in 1963 her seventh novel was turned down by her publishers Jonathan Cape for the next 14 years all her work was rejected but she never became so dispirited that she gave up altogether and then earlier this year Lord David Cecil and Philip Larkin both named her as the most underrated writer of the century in The Times Literary Supplement she subsequently found a new publisher and the resulting novel quartet in autumn has been shortlisted for tonight's Booker Prize Barbara PIM is with me now miss PIM I'd like to start by asking you how you begin the process of writing your fiction are there particular times or circumstances in which the idea for a book might come no they come all the time even in this very minute there might be something germinating that could come into a story or novel I keep a notebook and write down things I wouldn't call it a diary exactly but I write down my observations and suddenly something will come to me just from day-to-day life yes from everyday life on the whole I think it's very difficult to write about things you haven't actually seen or experienced I do like to observe people and I suppose odd people are the most interesting people to observe I feel sympathetic to them I suppose it's because I'm something of a loner myself I like to be detached from things I'm not the kind of person who has to be with people all the time you could describe the lives of your characters as humdrum I've always been very interested in people who are failures or deprived or in some way unsuccessful they're not the obviously popular heroes and heroines for novels and I do find it rather interesting to write about people like that I suppose it's because I regard myself as being unsuccessful in some ways well I hope you won't be unsuccessful this evening that's very kind of you thank you thank you and cut yes I expected it to be good now can I get you anything no thank you leave a taxi no thank you I'm going to have my hair done and I can walk there really good well good luck this evening thank you very much indeed thank you well done thank you very and Penelope lively next I think it was an awful and humiliating sensation to have my novels rejected for 14 years but a friend had warmed me of the dreadful things that were happening at Jonathan Cape when Tom Nash 'la joined the firm mesh recording one lime jelly have a pint of water have a plan to grope what happened is the book came in and we had two reports by two very eminent breeders one really disliked the book intensely on the other quaint didn't like it at all either in fact recommended rejection I was a little advisor the two eminent people who were against the book had read all her previous books and just said this is absolutely hopeless in fact anything could be blamed for I think is I hadn't actually read it Barbara them before that at all I regret the fact that I didn't read the book at the time I mean I should have insisted but the evidence against student from these two eminent critics president great such bad reports plus the chairman was so strong that frankly it didn't occur to me to read you 23rd of April posted unsuitable attachment 3rd of May unsuitable attachment returned 30th of May sent unsuitable attachment to Longman's 6th of June had unsuitable attachment back from Longman's 10th of July sin trapped in lemon leaves to McMillan 1st of August had wrapped in lemon leaves back from McMillan 10th of November Longman's returned the sweet dove died well written they say but what's the use of that surely 21 publishers is enough publishers they get an idea into their heads that a particular sort of writing no longer has a market and that's that they don't bother to ask librarians or listen to readers if it wasn't for philip larkin I probably wouldn't be here I wonder how many other novelists have suddenly been told that their work isn't fashionable or saleable anymore toss up really between Scot if I was excuse that stuff in issues so neglected 70 years Spanish brought us an awesome way it's the best novel the strength of her manner is that she's been able to create this absolutely precise self-contained world she's one of those novelists like I become to Burnett to some extent I suppose who's created a completely recognizable and self-contained landscape but I'm not sure that's what I entirely recognize but it's run that within its own parameters is absolutely coherent absolutely consistent the people are always him people the things that they do up in things and she has opposed this intense attention to to the appearance of things so there's always this emphasis on my moaning aware this is rather a curious situation if I hadn't been neglected for 14 years people wouldn't be making all this fuss Jonathan cape would have gone on bringing up my novels once every two years and I should have remained a nonentity the six shortlisted novels for 1977 our scholars Peter smarts confessions or Bailey bridge fanny Webster Caroline Blackwood the road to Litchfield Penelope lightly shadows on her skin Jennifer Johnston quartet in autumn Barbara Tim staying on old Scott and I am happy to say that the winner of the 1977 Booker Prize for fiction is staying on by Paul Scott dear Philip what a marvelous evening it was words are beginning to fail me but you must know what a deep pleasure the whole thing was even down to the meeting with Tom macula a few E's November roses will do another week with a few more leaves a few green leaves commit such a difference stuffed turbans of flounder and I never when I wake now in the small hours I don't think of death I always try to switch my thoughts to something frivolous like clothes or planning a scene in a novel thank you so much for sending me the poem I have read it many times I work all day and get half drunk at night waking at 4:00 to soundless dark I stare in time the curtain edges will grow light till then I see what's really there unresting death a whole day nearer now making all thought impossible but how and where and when I shall myself die added interrogation yet the dread of dying and being dead flashes afresh to hold and horrify the mind blanks at the glare not in remorse the good not done the love not given time torn off unused nor rigidly because an only life can take so long to climb clear of its wrong beginnings and may never but of the total emptiness forever the sure extinction that we travel to and shall be lost in always not to be here not to be anywhere and soon nothing more terrible nothing more true one of my favorite quiz games on television was one in which panelists were asked to guess the authorship of certain passages and then to discuss various features of the author in question there were no prizes for guessing no moving belt of desirable objects passing before their eyes just the pleasure of recognizing the unmistakable voice of Henry James or Graham Greene or whoever it might be I think that's the kind of immortality most authors would want to feel that their work would be immediately recognizable as having been written by them and by nobody else but of course it's a lot to ask for we hope you enjoyed miss Pimm's day at tomorrow Gary goes back to 1940 to protect his friends from an impending air raid but could he end up in jail after being mistaken for a German spy find out in our time-traveling comedy good night sweetheart tomorrow night at 8:00 coming up on ABC butoh piercing the mask you

Channel: S Holmes

Views: 277,544

Rating: 4.8238683 out of 5

Keywords: Patricia Routledge, Barbara Pym, James Runcie, Miss Pym's Day Out, Man Booker Prize (Award Category)

Id: mi8Zezov9RQ

Length: 47min 23sec (2843 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 17 2014