Sweet and just a touch musty

....there is even a perfume that smells like Barbara Pym – or at least her books, according to its designer. Paperback, sold by Demeter Fragrance in America, smells like "a dusty old copy of a Barbara Pym novel … sweet and just a touch musty".  {from 'The Blagger's (sic) Guide To: Barbara Pym,' in The Independent, March 2013}

{If only!... but it is also 'a fragrance literary with a variety of scents ranging from cosmopolitan cocktail to vanilla cake batter.'  That just makes no sense.  Different sides of the pond, I guess; but it's hard to imagine something that could smell like all of those things ... thank goodness. :)

Never mind ... I have plenty of dusty old copies of Barbara Pym novels of my own {thankfully! they're so hard to find now!} and many lovely, unmusty new friends to share her with, during the Barbara Pym Reading Week organized {thank you!} by Thomas and Amanda beginning June 1.  I'm glad I'm not the only one who can't wait that long ... I started reading A Lot to Ask, the biography by her friend Hazel Holt, yesterday.

During the fete, I think I'm going to start with Some Tame Gazelle {her first novel, and described as the most autobiographical one} and also read No Fond Return of Love {because some of our friends from A Glass of Blessings return}. I'm hoping to add at least one more (these are long-overdue rereads for me}.  And there might be a recipe or two.