In No Fond Return of Love, Pym introduces Dulcie Mainwaring, one of those seemingly selfless women who always help others and never look out for themselves, especially in matters of love. When Dulcie's young niece becomes the object of absentminded Professor Aylwin Forbes's amorous designs, Dulcie whisks away her friend Viola — who has her own designs on the professor — to the seaside in Taviscombe to discover the hidden secrets of the Forbes clan and a mysterious castle on the hill. The Times Literary Supplement praised Barbara Pym (1913-1980) as “the most underrated writer of the century.”