INTRODUCED BY SALLEY VICKERS''I''m a huge fan of Barbara Pym'' RICHARD OSMAN''She is the rarest of treasures; she reminds us of the heart-breaking silliness of everyday life'' ANNE TYLERCatherine Oliphant is a writer and lives with handsome anthropologist Tom Mallow. Their relationship runs into trouble when he begins a romance with student Deirdre Swann, so Catherine turns her attention to the reclusive anthropologist Alaric Lydgate, who has a fondness for wearing African masks. Added to this love tangle are the activities of Deirdre''s fellow students and their attempts to win the competition for a research grant.The course of true love or academia never did run smooth.''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, NEW YORKER''She can be seriously, hilariously funny - no other novelist has celebrated our national silliness with such exuberance'' KATE SAUNDERS