In addition to the many easily drawn parallels to Jane Austen, one may compare Barbara Pym to any number of twentieth century British women writers who have dealt to some extent in humor. Some of these writers include Angela Thirkell, whose series of satires written in the 1930s1940s were reissued in the early 1980s; Ivy Compton-Burnett; Iris Murdoch; Muriel Spark; and Margaret Drabble.

Pym herself expressed great admiration for Drabble's craft. Pym's skill at depicting quirky eccentric behavior may remind some of the currently popular American writer Anne Tyler; Tyler has reviewed Pym enthusiastically.