Some tame gazelle
(Book)

This is the first novel by Barbara Pym and is also an ode to her friends and family. The story centers on Belinda and Harriet Bede, (Barbara herself and her sister, Hilary.) Archdeacon Hoccleve, a married clergyman for whom Belinda has long nurtured a passion, is believed to be based on Pym's first love, Henry Harvey. In the course of the book, both sisters receive proposals of marriage which they feel obliged to reject, partly because they are not attracted to the men in question, but mainly because they are so used to living together and have become devoted to one another. They remain spinsters living quietly in the country.