{"title":"Paula Byrne","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePaula Byrne\u003c\/strong\u003e crafts compelling narratives that blend meticulous research with vivid storytelling. Her works invite readers into the lives of remarkable women, exploring their strengths, complexities, and the social worlds they inhabited. Whether through biography or fiction, her writing uncovers the hidden depths behind well-known figures and lesser-known heroines.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eExpect a thoughtful journey through history and character, where rich detail meets engaging prose. From intimate portraits of literary icons to evocative stories inspired by real lives, Paula Byrne’s books offer both illumination and inspiration for those who cherish stories of resilience and identity.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"the-adventures-of-miss-barbara-pym-by-paula-byrne-9780008322243","title":"The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e‘Captures both Barbara and her writing so miraculously’\u003c\/em\u003e JILLY COOPER\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePicked as a Book to Look Forward to in 2021 by the \u003cem\u003eGuardian\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Times\u003c\/em\u003e and the \u003cem\u003eObserver\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA Radio 4 Book of the Week, April 2021\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBarbara Pym became beloved as one of the wittiest novelists of the late twentieth century, revealing the inner workings of domestic life so brilliantly that her friend Philip Larkin announced her the era’s own Jane Austen. But who was Barbara Pym and why was the life of this English writer – one of the greatest chroniclers of the human heart – so defined by rejection, both in her writing and in love?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePym lived through extraordinary times. She attended Oxford in the thirties when women were the minority. She spent time in Nazi Germany, falling for a man who was close to Hitler. She made a career on the Home Front as a single working girl in London’s bedsit land. Through all of this, she wrote. Diaries, notes, letters, stories and more than a dozen novels – which as Byrne shows more often than not reflected the themes of Pym’s own experience: worlds of spinster sisters and academics in unrequited love, of powerful intimacies that pulled together seemingly humble lives.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePaula Byrne’s new biography is the first to make full use of Barbara Pym’s archive. Brimming with new extracts from Pym’s diaries, letters and novels, this book is a joyous introduction to a woman who was herself the very best of company.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eByrne brings Barbara Pym back to centre stage as one of the great English novelists: a generous, shrewdly perceptive writer and a brave woman, who only in the last years of her life was suddenly, resoundingly recognised for her genius.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Arotahi Agency","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46552322408684,"sku":"9780008322243","price":53.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/26142333482190.jpg?v=1750037926"},{"product_id":"six-weeks-by-the-sea-by-paula-byrne-9780008753214","title":"Six Weeks by the Sea","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSummer 1801. Sidmouth, England.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe Austen Family descends upon a fashionable Georgian seaside resort in Devonshire for a six-week holiday. Jane's brother, Frank, is on leave from the Royal Navy, and dearly wishes to unite his sister with his friend Captain Peter Parker.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBut another holidaymaker, a handsome stranger, catches sight of Jane and is determined to make her acquaintance. This rival to Captain Parker is Samuel Rose: a lawyer, literary man and abolitionist. As the weeks pass, Jane's relationship with both men brings about unexpected surprises. By the end of the summer, the course of her life will have changed forever.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSet against the backdrop of Austen’s family, the tensions of the war against France, and naval and colonial politics, \u003cem\u003eSix Weeks by the Sea\u003c\/em\u003e is the fascinating story of how the most famous romance writer of all time fell in love for the first time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"HarperCollins New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46778929086700,"sku":"9780008753214","price":27.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/c5b070513fdd390d546744a0b67ff99c.jpg?v=1756718322"},{"product_id":"the-real-jane-austen-by-paula-byrne-9780007358342","title":"The Real Jane Austen","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTHE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e‘It is good to meet the real Jane Austen at last’ \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eIndependent on Sunday\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'Brilliantly illuminating … by focusing, chapter by chapter, on one thread or another of Austen’s experience, Byrne allows us to grasp the richness of her inner life’ \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eGuardian\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWho was the real Jane Austen? A retiring spinster content with quiet village life? Or a strong-minded woman who chose to remain unmarried and to fashion herself as a professional writer?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBestselling biographer Paula Byrne uses objects that conjure up a key moment in Austen’s life and work – a vellum notebook, a topaz cross, a writing box and a bathing machine – to reveal the true self of this most beloved author.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'Sparklingly multi-faceted, catching the light in intriguing ways … Byrne’s Jane is far less likely to go for a quiet walk in the garden than she is to be whisked into town in search of a velvet cushion' \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eMail on Sunday\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Arotahi Agency","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46998746038508,"sku":"9780007358342","price":27.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/16503323482190.jpg?v=1763230209"},{"product_id":"hardy-women-by-paula-byrne-9780008322298","title":"Hardy Women","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA Book of the Year in \u003cem\u003eThe Times, Guardian, Independent, New Statesman, Bookseller\u003c\/em\u003e and at Waterstones\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'He understands only the women he invents – the others not at all'\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThomas Hardy is one of the most beloved and most-read British authors. His influence on literature and the minds of his readers is singular. But how is it that the novelist who created some of the most memorable and modern female characters in literature had such troubled relationships with real women?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn this highly innovative book, acclaimed biographer Paula Byrne re-examines Hardy’s life through the eyes of the women who made him – mother, sisters, girlfriends, wives, muses. The story veers from shocking scenes such as his obsession with the sight of a woman hanged, to poignant vignettes of unfulfilled passion, to fascinating details of working women’s lives in the nineteenth century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eHardy Women\u003c\/em\u003e is the story of how the magnificent fictional women he invented would not have been possible without the hardship and hardiness of the real ones who shaped his passions and his imagination. It is only through understanding and witnessing these hardy women that we can truly enter the heart of this great novelist and poet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Arotahi Agency","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47536634888428,"sku":"9780008322298","price":27.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780008322298-hardy-women.jpg?v=1776385134"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.pro\/collections\/paula-byrne.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}