The Sweet Dove Died

The Sweet Dove Died is a darkly comic exploration of love, loneliness and jealousy from Barbara Pym. the author of Jane and Prudence, and Excellent Women.

‘Barbara Pym is one of my most favourite novelists. Few other writers have given me more laughter and more pleasure’ – Jilly Cooper, author of Rivals

‘Life is cruel and we do terrible things to each other.’

The lives of Humphrey and James Boyce, a seasoned antique dealer and his good-looking nephew, are changed for ever when the elegant Leonora Eyre glides into their bustling Bond Street salesroom, delicate as porcelain, cool as ice. An impassioned bid lands her a coveted book and two equally enthralled companions.

As the enigmatic Leonora navigates these relationships, others are drawn into her mysterious and intoxicating web, and a world of human complexities and simmering desires is exposed.

Pym brings her unique voice to this darkly comic exploration of love, loneliness and jealousy.

‘I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym’ – Richard Osman, author of The Thursday Murder Club

‘Faultless’ – The Guardian

‘Her characters are all meticulously impaled on the delicate pins of a wit that is as scrupulous as it is deadly’ – The Observer

‘A coldly funny book’ – The Sunday Telegraph

‘The critics who have recently insisted on Miss Pym’s too long neglected gifts have not been wrong’ – Financial Times