Kathleen Farrell (4 August 1912 – 25 November 1999) was a British novelist of the post–World War II period who was known for her unsparing and sometimes bitingly funny studies of character.
Farrell, who was typically compared to Barbara Pym in contemporary reviews, was known for her sharp depictions of character, frequently verging on the cynical.
[3] The Cost of Living is a darkly humorous portrait of two impoverished women—a freelance typist and an artist—and their attempts to meet people and develop romantic relationships.
[4] A passage from this book gives a sense of Farrell's characteristically acerbic tone: She was well connected in British literary circles, counting among her friends Ivy Compton-Burnett, Olivia Manning, Pamela Hansford Johnson, and Quentin Crisp, and she was known for encouraging up-and-coming writers.
[4] Other members of the league are said to have included Johnson, Manning, Kate O'Brien, and Kay Dick, who was Farrell's life partner for some twenty years.