A Very Private Eye: An Autobiography in Diaries and Letters is a 1984 publication of writings by the English novelist Barbara Pym.

Pym kept a formal diary separate to her writing observations from 1931 to 1948, after which time she recorded both personal and literary ideas in the same series of notebooks.

During this era, as well as publishing six novels, Pym was working full-time at the International African Institute in London and thus had less time to devote to keeping her notebooks.

The two books are designed to complement each other; thus, Holt focuses much of her time on the years 1950–1962, filling out the gaps in the text of A Very Private Eye.

[5] Kirkus Reviews acknowledged the appeal the volume would have for Pym fans but felt that too much material was included, some of it uninteresting or overly detailed.