by Brendan King
26 Reader’s Almanac, interview with Walter James Miller, WNYC, 30 June 1979.
27 Letter to Colin Haycraft, 7 January 1978.
28 Written on the back of a first-day cover featuring breeds of horses, 6 July 1978.
29 Covering note to ms of Young Adolf, c. July 1978.
30 Philip Saville, interview with author, 28 February 2014.
31 Small Talk, with Edie Stevens, unidentified radio interview, 2001.
32 Television listing, Observer, 20 November 1977.
33 Richard Ingrams, ‘Too gross’, The Spectator, 24 December 1977.
34 Letter from Colin Haycraft to Simon King, 14 March 1979.
35 Letter to Michael Holroyd, c. 23 June 1975.
36 Nicholas Wroe, ‘Filling in the gaps’, Guardian, 1 June 2002.
37 Neil Lyndon, ‘Beryl said . . .’, Radio Times, 13 March 1976.
38 Maureen Cleave, ‘Will the real Beryl Bainbridge sit down and write a novel?’ Over 21, April 1979.
39 Letter to Colin and Anna Haycraft, c. March 1979.
40 Letter from Alan Sharp, 23 April 1979.
41 Letter to Don McKinlay, c. March 1979.
42 Harry Hoff, interview with author, 22 June 1989.
43 ‘Diary’, The Spectator, 2 March 1985.
44 Harry Hoff, interview with author, 22 June 1989.
45 Entry in author’s diary, 25 May 1989.
46 Letter to Psiche Hughes, 29 October 1984.
47 Ronald Hayman, ‘A Russian experience’, Book Choice, February 1981.
48 Entry in author’s diary, 25 May 1989.
49 Ronald Hayman, ‘A Russian experience’, Book Choice, February 1981.
50 Frank Kermode, ‘The Duckworth school of writers’, London Review of Books, 20 November 1980.
51 Alice Thomas Ellis, ‘I didn’t miss Colin at all when he died’, The Times, 27 October 2004.
52 Shirley Lowe, ‘How we met: Colin Haycraft and Alice Thomas Ellis’, Independent, 21 October 1991.
53 Alice Thomas Ellis, A Welsh Childhood, Michael Joseph, 1990, p. 164.
54 The Clothes in the Wardrobe (1987) contains what can be seen as a metaphorical allusion to the abortion incident: Margaret, nineteen (the same age as Anna was in 1952), has an affair with a young man she adores, who has murdered a gypsy girl. After Margaret helps him to dispose of the body, she is so stricken with feelings of guilt and shame that she wishes to atone for her actions by becoming a nun.
55 Information from Beryl’s conversation with author on 6 October 1989.
56 Letter to Penny Jones, c. 1973. Beryl often signed notes to her friends ‘Ethel’, or more fully ‘Ethel M. Dell’, an ironic allusion to the popular Romantic novelist.
57 ‘A life in the day of novelist Beryl Bainbridge’, interview with Victoria Jones, The Sunday Times, 17 August 1983.
58 Yolanta May, interview with author, 4 March 2015.
59 Michael Holroyd, interview with author, 18 September 2013.
60 Letter from Anna Haycraft, c. September 2001. BL MS 83731B. Significantly Beryl would annotate this letter and include it among the papers she sold to the British Library in 2004, so she clearly wanted the circumstances surrounding her falling out with Anna on public record.
61 To give just a few examples: in The Birds of the Air, Barbara’s husband Sebastien is having an affair with a music teacher; in Unexplained Laughter, Lydia’s lover, Finn, has gone off with another woman; in Pillars of Gold, Connie suspects her lover Memet of being unfaithful; and in The Skeleton in the Cupboard, Lili has an affair with Mrs Munro’s husband Jack.
62 ‘A spoonful of matinee sugar’, Evening Standard, c. 10 May 1991.
CHAPTER 28
1 Letter to Colin Haycraft, c. November 1984.
2 ‘Beryl in peril’, Evening Standard, 15 September 1980.
3 Emma Fisher, review of Another Part of the Wood, The Spectator, 8 December 1979, p. 25.
4 Julian Symons, review of Another Part of the Wood, The New York Review of Books, 17 July 1980.
5 Gloria Valverde, A Textual Study of Beryl Bainbridge’s Another Part of the Wood and A Weekend with Claude, PhD Thesis, University of Texas, 1985, p. 95.
6 Birmingham Post, November 1979.
7 ‘From Buffalo to Georgia by the Bainbridge route’, interview with Matthew Lewin, Ham & High, 12 February 1982.
8 Ibid.
9 He wrote to John Pinsent at the Department of Greek, Liverpool University: ‘Would you like a talk on the subject of wife-murder among classical scholars in 1871? So far I have only found one case.’ Letter from Colin Haycraft to J. Pinsent, 13 November 1980. BL MS 83735.
10 ‘Mr Chips’, in Colin Haycraft: Maverick Publisher, edited by Stoddart Martin, Duckworth, 1995, p. 52.
11 ‘Beryl in peril’, Evening Standard, 15 September 1980.
12 ‘Pen friends’, Daily Express, 17 November 1996.
13 Motives, interview with Anthony Clare, BBC, 22 August 1983.
14 Letter to Colin Haycraft, c. 10 April 1984.
15 From conversation with author, recorded in diary, 17 January 1989.
16 From conversation with author, recorded in diary, 3 February 1988.
17 Letter to Michael Holroyd, 30 June 1984.
18 Letter from Michael Holroyd, 3 August 2001.
19 Letter from Brian Masters, 16 October 1984. Masters first met Beryl in 1978 and would go on to become a close friend. His initial impressions of her are typical of many who encountered her during this period: ‘She was a down-to-earth, sensible woman, prone to laughter and extravagance, smoking too much, drinking too much. There was nothing remotely overwhelming about her.’ Observer, 29 October 2000.
20 Harriet Waugh, ‘Love and rage’, review of Watson’s Apology, The Spectator, 3 November 1984.
21 Humphrey Carpenter, ‘Kiss Me Hardy’, review of Watson’s Apology, London Review of Books, 15 November 1984.
22 Letter to Michael Holroyd, 24 October 1983.
23 Letter to Colin Haycraft, c. February 1984.
24 ‘Priestley: a message for all times’, The Times, 17 August 1984.
25 Letters Page, Radio Times, 21 April 1984.
26 Terry Waite Takes a Different View, Thames, 1986.
27 Anatole Broyard, ‘Books of the times’, The New York Times, 6 September 1984.
28 Roger Mills, quoted in letter from Jimmy Dewar, 29 May 1984.
29 ‘Living with Ourselves’, proposed outline for television series.
30 Letter to Psiche Hughes, c. September 1985.
31 This and subsequent quote, letter to Anna Haycraft, 3 September 1985.
32 Beatrix Campbell, ‘South Yorkshire Republic’, review of Forever England, London Review of Books, 4 June 1987.
33 Letter to Colin Haycraft, c. October 1984.
34 William Foster, ‘Childhood stories’, The Scotsman, 15 October 1977.
35 Letter to Colin Haycraft, 7 January 1978.
36 Letter from Jenne Casarotto to Colin Haycraft, 2 April 1979.
37 Letter from Jenne Casarotto to Colin Haycraft, 24 September 1979.
38 Beryl, as she always did in matters concerning money, took the loan seriously. It continued to play on her mind and she would later send them the manuscript of one of her novels as a thank-you gift.
39 Letter to Michael Holroyd, 5 December 1984.
40 Letter from Colin Haycraft, 11 December 1984.
41 Letter from Colin Haycraft to Jenne Casarotto, 11 December 1984.
42 See letter to Jenne Casarotto, c. 18 December 1984.
43 See letter to Colin Haycraft, c. January 1984.
44 Letter to Jenne Casarotto, c. 22 January 1985.
45 Letter from Colin Haycraft, 8 January 1985.
46 Letter to Andrew Hewson, c. 11 January 1985.
47 This and subsequent quote: letter to Colin Haycraft, c. 10 January 1985.
48 Letter to Andrew Hewson, 14 February 1985.
49 Letter to Jenne Casarotto, c. 22 February 1984.
50 Lette
r to Jenne Casarotto, 31 July 1985.
51 Letter to Andrew Hewson, c. 22 February 1985.
52 Letter from Colin Haycraft, 8 January 1985.
53 The most extreme form of this is in one of the last interviews she gave for the British Library in their Authors’ Lives series: ‘Colin would print no more than 3,000 books,’ she told the interviewer. ‘I never got any money when I was with Duckworth. All those years I’d done seventeen or eighteen books. I never got an advance, ever. I’d never earned more than about £4,000 a year.’ See Authors’ Lives, British Library sound recording (Track 10, May 2009).
54 See exchange of letters between Duckworth and BBC, covering the period 9 October–26 November 1986.
55 ‘Preface’, Filthy Lucre, Duckworth, 1986, p. 8.
56 Letter from Andy McKillop, 5 June 1986.
57 Letter from Andrew Hewson, 10 June 1986.
58 Letter from Graham Greene, 4 May 1987.
CHAPTER 29
1 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. March 1994.
2 See letter to Andy McKillop, c. October 1988. McKillop continued to hope Beryl would write something for him, and there was even a brief discussion about the possibility she might work with Billie Whitelaw on her autobiography. But this never got further than the discussion stage and like the history of Liverpool the idea was abandoned. See letter from Andy McKillop, 29 September 1988.
3 ‘Interview: Paul Taylor talks to Beryl Bainbridge’, Literary Review, March 1986.
4 Details from author’s diary, entries for 11, 17 and 23 March 1988. The book was later taken up by Melvyn Fairclough, whose The Ripper and the Royals was published by Duckworth in 1991.
5 ‘Banking on old remedies’, Evening Standard, 21 January 1988. In this version Beryl tries to ring her bank, but in an interview in 1995 she says she tried to ring her mother. For a fuller discussion of the way Beryl massaged such stories to suit her needs, see Huw Marsh, ‘Life’s nasty habit’, in Critical Engagements, vol. 2. no. 1, UK Network for Modern Fiction Studies, 2008.
6 Face to Face, interview with Tony Wilson, Granada, 1989.
7 Beryl did in fact experiment for a while with the first-person narrator, but by the end of March, still dissatisfied with what she had written, she changed it all back as the tone wasn’t right. Conversation with author, recorded in diary, 30 March 1988.
8 Peter Campbell, ‘People who love people who love somebody else’, London Review of Books, 25 January 1990.
9 Conversation with author, recorded in diary, 14 September 1989.
10 Cumberland Evening Times, 21 July 1971.
11 Colin Haycraft, account of Duckworth. BL MS 83736.
12 Conversation with author, recorded in diary, 26 October 1989.
13 Conversation with author, recorded in diary, 25 October 1988.
14 Conversation with author, recorded in diary, 26 September 1989.
15 Letter from Jonathan Reuvid to the editor of the Evening Standard, 12 September 1989. There is no record of Editione Duckworth Italiana ever publishing a book.
16 Ned Sherrin, ‘Globe-warming for Wanamaker’, 16 September 1989.
17 Beryl’s account as recorded in author’s diary, 26 September 1989.
18 Letter from Marie-Claude Shashoua to Colin Haycraft, 26 September 1989. BL MS 83736.
19 Letter from Jonathan Reuvid to Colin Haycraft, 30 September 1989. BL MS 83736.
20 Roger Shashoua, Dancing with the Bear, GMB Publishing, 2007, p. 9.
21 Beryl’s account as recorded in author’s diary, 26 September 1989.
22 Beryl’s account as recorded in author’s diary, 1 November 1989.
23 After Duckworth quit the building in 2000 it would become the site of Jay Jopling’s uber-trendy White Cube gallery.
24 John Jolliffe, Woolf at the Door, Duckworth, 1998, p. 95.
25 Christopher Edwards, ‘Minding his own business’, The Spectator, 17 April 1992.
26 Letter to Andrew Hewson, 11 March 1992.
27 John Jolliffe, Woolf at the Door, Duckworth, 1998, pp. 95–6.
28 Latin exercise book, c. 1991–2,
29 Letter to Andrew Hewson, c. July 1992.
30 Letter from Malcolm Hill, c. February 2008.
31 Conversation between Beryl and author, recorded in diary, 20 April 1989. Colin eventually signed the form.
32 Latin exercise book, c. 1991–2,
33 Letter from Tony Ellis to Stephen Hill, 8 April 1992. BL MS 83736.
34 Letter from Tony Ellis to Jonathan Pearce, 30 October 1992. BL MS 83736.
35 Letter from Stephen Hill to Tony Ellis. 2 November 1992. BL MS 83736.
36 See letter from Stephen Hill to Beryl, 5 November 1992, in which he mentions the figure of £400,000, and letter from Bank of Ireland to Stephen Hill, 3 November 1992, which gives the amount of the loan as £600,000. BL MS 83736.
37 Letter from Tony Ellis to Stephen Hill, 6 November 1992. BL MS 83736.
38 Letter to Stephen Hill, 17 November 1992.
39 Letter to Stephen Hill, 19 November 1992.
40 Authors’ Lives, British Library sound recording (Track 10, May 2009).
41 Letter to Andrew Hewson, c. May 1993.
42 Written on the bottom of a letter from Genevieve Cooper, 18 August 1992.
43 Beryl’s income before tax for 1992 was a little over £89,400, of which just over £24,000 was from the Evening Standard.
44 Press release, c. 8 December 1992.
45 John Jolliffe, Woolf at the Door, Duckworth, 1998, p. 96.
46 Letter from Colin Haycraft to John Briggs, 26 May 1994.
47 Beryl’s account as recorded in author’s diary, 30 March 1988.
48 Ibid.
49 ‘Pen friends’, Daily Express, 17 November 1996.
50 Information from Susan Hitch, interview with author, 20 March 2015.
51 This and subsequent quote: Peter Conradi, interview with author, 27 February 2015.
52 ‘Diary’, The Spectator, 16 February 1985. Beryl’s first reference to the book was in 1980, in Winter Garden, where she describes her alter ego Enid as having ‘often read for pleasure Cherry-Gerrard’s [sic] chilling account of the worst journey in the world’ (p. 58).
53 Conversation with author, recorded in diary, 27 February and 24 April 1990.
54 Letter to Michelle Haycraft, c. 1990.
55 Letter to Mervyn Horder, c. 10 January 1991. That Beryl could claim her fictional representations of two such psychologically and temperamentally diverse figures as Adolf Hitler and Robert Scott were both based on her father shows that her statements can’t be taken too literally.
56 Conversation with author, recorded in diary, 27 February 1990. During the 1970s Beryl had used the photograph of Queen Victoria and John Brown as a model for her experiments in engraving. The resulting pictures featured a naked woman on a horse in the same pose as the Queen, and significantly, given Beryl’s use of Napoleon as a symbol in her paintings, she is also wearing a Napoleonic hat.
57 ‘Act one, scene two’, interview with Alan Franks, The Times, 7 April 1992.
58 Rowanne Pasco, ‘Cold courage’, Tablet, 1 February 1992.
59 Letter from Hugh Lloyd-Jones to Colin Haycraft, 16 June 1994.
60 Letter to Andrew and Margaret Hewson, c. July 1992.
61 Letters from Colin Haycraft, 20 June and 15 July 1994.
62 Letter from Colin Haycraft, 23 September 1994.
63 Unpublished draft of obituary, September 1994.
64 ‘Mr Chips’, in Colin Haycraft: Maverick Publisher, edited by Stoddart Martin, Duckworth, 1995, pp. 53–5.
CHAPTER 30
1 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. 1995.
2 Letter to Andrew Hewson, c. July 1993.
3 Letter from Robin Baird-Smith, 1 November 1994. BL MS 83736A.
4 Robin Baird-Smith, ‘A not so quiet life’, Tablet, 10 July 2010.
5 Letter from Andrew Hewson to Robin Baird-Smith, 25 February 1995.
6 Letter to Robin Baird-Smith, c. 25 Feb
ruary 1995.
7 Letter from Robin Baird-Smith to Andrew Hewson, 27 February 1995.
8 Letter from Robin Baird-Smith, 1 March 1995.
9 Robin Baird-Smith, ‘A not so quiet life’, Tablet, 10 July 2010.
10 Letter from Robin Baird-Smith, 4 January 1996.
11 Letter to Michael Holroyd, 29 June 2000.
12 Kate Kellaway, ‘Beryl come on down’, Observer, 25 October 1998.
13 Beryl wrote for The Oldie from its first appearance on 21 February 1992 until her death and rarely missed an issue.
14 Martin Wainwright, ‘Scousers hit back at author’s comments’, Guardian, 4 March 1999.
15 A. N. Wilson, interview with author, 4 March 2015.
16 Nevertheless, Beryl’s willingness to help others in their writing continued until the end of her life. During her final year, despite frequent bouts of illness, she spent time talking to the actor Sir Timothy Ackroyd, who had asked her for suggestions as to how to turn an undramatic murder trial monologue he’d written, entitled It’s a Dog’s Life, into something more conventionally dramatic. Despite a number of meetings, however, the project was begun too late and remained unfinished at her death, with only her suggested amendments to Act 1 having been incorporated. Ackroyd later finished the project himself, retitling it The Fuse on the Hume Banger.
17 Draft of ‘Kiss Me Hardy’, author’s copy of working manuscript, c. 1988.
18 A few years later Beryl would reuse the title for an unrelated story about a man going on a cruise.
19 ‘I read and read and read and it all goes out of one ear’, Observer, 5 April 1998.
20 Springtime for Hitler, Mary Poppins and Bedknobs and Broomsticks were other perennial favourites.
21 Script for ‘The Last Battle’, December 1990.
22 Kirk Freudenburg, The Cambridge Companion to Roman Satire, Cambridge University Press, 2005, p. 183.
23 Inevitably my working relationship with Beryl affected her previous reliance on Anna’s editorial input. Beginning with An Awfully Big Adventure we spent many hours discussing the progress of her novels, from their initial conception to the final proofreading stage, a process that was formalized with Every Man for Himself when I took over the task of preparing Beryl’s manuscripts. Describing our working relationship in an interview in 1999, Beryl said: ‘Four or five years ago he started to help with my work, and nowadays we have long telephone conversations once I’ve written something. I give him pages to look at, and he’ll say, “I’m not so sure about that word, Beryl. Did you mean to put that there?” He has fantastic input. He knows my work so well now; he knows the process and he knows what I’m trying to do.’ (‘Life support’, Observer, 11 April 1999.)