Beryl Bainbridge

by Brendan King

  24 Kent Carroll – who Beryl nicknamed ‘Superman’ – would publish Beryl’s work in America until her death.

  25 E. Jane Dickson, ‘Hot on hellfire, strict on syntax’, Independent, 19 February 1998.

  26 Letter to Mary Thorne, c. 2004.

  27 Derwent May, interview with author, 4 March 2015.

  28 A. N. Wilson, interview with author, 4 March 2015.

  29 Letter to Derwent and Yolanta May, 29 March 1993. In this letter Beryl gives the impression that Colin left her to walk home alone, but in a follow-up letter the next day she clarified that he had in fact offered to take her home but she’d refused because he was so tired.

  30 Letter from Colin Haycraft, 2 April 1993.

  31 A. N. Wilson, interview with author, 4 March 2015.

  32 This and subsequent quote, letter to author, c. May 2004.

  33 From conversation with author, recorded in diary, 8 June 1988.

  34 ‘Relative values’, The Sunday Times, 5 January 1986.

  35 Message left on author’s answer machine, c. October 2000.

  36 ‘Crimea’, South Bank Show, London Weekend Television, 1998.

  37 ‘Welcome to the weird world of Beryl Bainbridge’, interview with Judith Woods, Scotsman, 27 November 1997.

  38 ‘Dead men live’, Sunday Express, 13 December 1992. Barthorp also provided her with useful information on Crimean regiments and army surgeons.

  39 Draft letter to Pamela Roberts, c. October 1996.

  40 ‘The writing life interview’, Writer’s Digest, June 1999.

  41 South Bank Show: Crimea, London Weekend Television, 1998.

  42 Initially Robin was concerned that the book might be too short. Although at just over 47,000 words the novel is 10,000 words shorter than Every Man for Himself, it was still longer than both The Dressmaker and Injury Time.

  43 Kate Kellaway, ‘Beryl, come on down’, Observer, 25 October 1998.

  44 ‘Cold call: Beryl Bainbridge’, interview with Jack O’Sullivan, Independent, 26 September 1998.

  45 Julian Barnes betting slip, 27 October 1998. BL MS 83732A.

  46 Valentine Cunningham, The Times Literary Supplement, 17 November 1978.

  47 Quoted in Julian Barnes, ‘How did she do it?’, Guardian, 26 July 2008.

  48 ‘Booker Prize: tears, tiffs and triumphs’, Guardian, 8 September 2008.

  49 Independent, 17 October 1998.

  50 Letter from Robin Baird-Smith, c. 1998.

  51 ‘Books: The loafer’, Guardian, 10 July 1999.

  52 See filings at Company Check website.

  53 Letter from Stephen Hill to Andrew Hewson, 28 July 1999.

  54 Letter from Stephen Hill to Margaret Hewson, 1 March 2000.

  55 Fax to Margaret Hewson, 16 March 2001.

  56 Unpublished blurb for According to Queeney, 16 March 2001.

  57 ‘Beryl’s perils’, interview with Lynn Barber, Observer, 19 August 2001.

  58 ‘I never thought I was worth anything as a writer’, interview with Graham Turner, Daily Telegraph, 18 August 2001.

  59 Beryl’s Last Year, directed by Charlie Russell, BBC, 2005.

  60 ‘I never thought I was worth anything as a writer’, interview with Graham Turner, Daily Telegraph, 18 August 2001.

  61 Letter from Anna Haycraft to Daily Telegraph, 27 August 2001. BL MS 83731B.

  62 Letter from Anna Haycraft, September 2001. BL MS 83731B.

  63 In an interview given the year before she died, Beryl said the only reason Anna had a house in Wales ‘is because of the money that I’ve earnt’. (Authors’ Lives, British Library sound recording, Track 8, April 2009.) This wasn’t true, but it shows the extent to which the house in Trefechan became a symbol in Beryl’s mind of how she had been financially mistreated by Duckworth.

  64 Draft letter to Anna Haycraft. September 2001. BL MS 83731B.

  CHAPTER 31

  1 Letter to Mary Thorne, c. 2004.

  2 South Bank Show: Crimea, London Weekend Television, 1998.

  3 The prize money of £40,000 was tax free, but one condition of the award was that recipients donate £10,000 to an organization of their choice to encourage writing and reading. The split prize meant that each writer received £20,000, out of which they each donated £5,000 to a good cause. Beryl chose the King’s Lynn Literature Festival, which had its Arts Council grant cut a year or so previously.

  4 Letter to Andrew Hewson, c. 14 April 2002.

  5 Letter to Andrew Hewson, c. 16 August 2002. The performance was actually billed as The Triumph and Tragedy of Dr Johnson.

  6 Susan Hill talks to Beryl Bainbridge, Hay-on-Wye Literary Festival, 9 June 2002.

  7 ‘Knocked out into never-never land’, Sunday Telegraph, 1 March 1992.

  8 Letter to Margaret Hewson, 3 April 2002.

  9 University College London (UCL) examination report, 15 March 2003.

  10 Letter to Andrew Hewson, 13 March 2003.

  11 Message on author’s answer machine, 30 August 2003.

  12 ‘Dear Brutus’, author’s copy of working manuscript.

  13 ‘Echoes of a rackety life’, interview with Sholto Byrnes, Independent, 17 May 2004.

  14 ‘Coming to a bookshop near you’, Daily Telegraph, 5 January 2004: ‘That long-time Booker bridesmaid Beryl Bainbridge is throwing her hat in the ring again with Dear Brutus (September, Little, Brown).’

  15 Letter to Andrew Hewson, c. July 2004.

  16 Beryl was referred to a chest specialist at the Royal Free Hospital, who concluded that the hilar-node calcification on her X-rays was an indication of tuberculosis. As tests in 1954 had shown she didn’t have TB as a child, this episode was determined to have happened subsequently. See letter from Dr Jeremy Brown to Dr Sackville-West, 3 July 2008.

  17 Letter from Professor R. Pounder to Dr Steen, 3 January 1995.

  18 Information contained in health records from the James Wigg Group Practice.

  19 Beryl’s Last Year, directed by Charlie Russell, BBC, 2005.

  20 Letter from Peter Taylor, 6 January 2004.

  21 Letter to Mary Thorne, c. 2004.

  22 Information contained in health records from the James Wigg Group Practice.

  23 ‘Nicotine teens and emphysemic adults’, Guardian, 14 May 2007.

  24 ‘Tragic Pauline was Beryl’s inspiration’, Camden New Journal, 30 October 2003.

  25 Draft obituary for Margaret Hewson, c. 30 August 2002. In According to Queeney, Beryl named Mrs Thrale’s servant Mags Hewson in her honour.

  26 Lynn Barber, obituary of Margaret Hewson, Guardian, 3 September 2002.

  27 Draft obituary for Margaret Hewson, c. 30 August 2002.

  28 Alice Thomas Ellis, ‘Diary’, The Spectator, 24 April 2004.

  29 Alice Thomas Ellis, ‘I didn’t miss Colin at all when he died’, The Times, 27 October 2004.

  30 ‘Kindred Spirits’, Guardian, Saturday 19 March 2005.

  31 In my own case, in a letter dated September 2004, it was regarding her work: ‘Dearest Brendan, You have been my confidant all these years. Thank you so much. I’d like you to have a say in what happens to my novels . . . try to remember how we worked together. Every time you objected to something in my text, I argued and thought who the hell does he think he is. But every time you were right. Very much love, Beryl.’

  32 Due to the huge amount of material and Beryl’s erratic filing habits, a number of personal documents – such as drawings by her grandchildren – were included, while other papers that were more clearly literary in character – such as the American journal and pages of ‘He’s the Captain of the Team’ she was using for Polka Dot – were excluded and remained scattered about in other filing cabinets and drawers until her death.

  33 Letter from Joan Winterkorn, 18 January 2005.

  34 Letter from Dr Karen Ling to Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital, 18 November 2003.

  35 James Wigg Practice records, entry for 16 August 1995.

  36 James Wigg Practice records, entry for 11 August
2006.

  37 Letter from J. R. Sainsbury to Juliet Glover, 24 August 2006.

  38 Letter from J. R. Sainsbury to Dr Sackville-West, 29 August 2006.

  39 ‘My heart attack worked wonders’, The Sunday Times, 28 October 2008.

  40 Letter from Dr J. Tobias to Dr Sackville-West, 7 February 2007.

  41 A. N. Wilson, ‘My week’, Observer, 21 September 2008.

  42 Letter from Richard Garlick to Dr Booth, 14 May 2008.

  43 Letter from Jo Davies to Richard Garlick, 9 June 2008.

  44 Letter from Dr K. Gowribalan to UCL neurology department, 8 January 2009.

  45 Authors’ Lives, British Library sound recording (Track 8, April 2009).

  46 University College Hospital (UCH) discharge form, 29 March 2009.

  47 Authors’ Lives, British Library sound recording (Track 8, April 2009).

  48 Authors’ Lives, British Library sound recording (Track 12, July 2009).

  49 Beryl’s Last Year, directed by Charlie Russell, BBC, 2005.

  50 Letter to Andrew Hewson, 28 September 2005.

  51 Letter to Derwent and Yolanta May, 21 July 2009.

  52 Authors’ Lives, British Library sound recording (Track 10, May 2009).

  53 Letter from Dr Richard Garlick to Dr Booth, 15 June 2008.

  54 Letter to Derwent and Yolanta May, 21 July 2009.

  55 Letter from Dr J. Tobias to Dr Sackville-West, 5 November 2009.

  56 Letter to author, c. July 2009.

  57 Letter to author, 24 September 2009.

  58 Letter to Dr Sackville-West, c. January 2010.

  59 Letter from Dr Sackville-West to Dr Ari Laurence, 14 January 2010.

  60 Letter to Derwent and Yolanta May, February 2010.

  61 Letter to author, 23 April 2010.

  62 Mark Bostridge, unpublished diary entry for 17 April 2010.

  63 Letter from James Crosbie to Dr Sackville-West, 10 May 2010.

  64 Hospital diary, 2010. See also death certificate, dated 5 July 2010, where the cause of death is listed as (a) Bowel Obstruction (b) Metastatic Carcinoma.

  AFTERWORD

  1 The desk was rescued from the Duckworth offices when the firm moved out of the Old Piano Factory in 1990.

  2 Ruth Scurr, ‘Road trip’, Times Literary Supplement, 27 May 2011.

  3 Quoted in ‘Novelist who can’t write fiction’, interview with Katharine Whitehorn, The News, 7 February 1978. Whitehorn went on to explain that ‘presumably . . . she just lifts long strands of real life from the pot and cuts them off randomly’.

  4 Mark Bostridge, ‘Knowingly undersold’, New Statesman, 30 May 2011.

  5 Now that Beryl’s personal papers in the British Library can be consulted, the published accounts of her home life and her family upbringing are beginning to face more serious critical scrutiny than in the past. This is evidenced by one of the best critical assessments of Beryl’s work to date, Huw Marsh’s Beryl Bainbridge (Northcote House, 2014), though it could be argued that Marsh still takes too many of Beryl’s unsupported statements about her life at face value.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  NOVELS

  A Weekend with Claud, New Authors, 1967.

  Another Part of the Wood, Hutchinson, 1968.

  Harriet Said . . ., Duckworth, 1972.

  The Dressmaker, Duckworth, 1973 (US: The Secret Glass).

  The Bottle Factory Outing, Duckworth, 1974.

  Sweet William, Duckworth, 1975.

  A Quiet Life, Duckworth, 1976.

  Injury Time, Duckworth, 1977.

  Young Adolf, Duckworth, 1978.

  Another Part of the Wood, revised ed., Duckworth, 1979.

  Winter Garden, Duckworth, 1980.

  A Weekend with Claude, revised ed., Duckworth, 1981.

  Watson’s Apology, Duckworth, 1984.

  Filthy Lucre, Duckworth, 1986.

  An Awfully Big Adventure, Duckworth, 1989.

  The Birthday Boys, Duckworth, 1991.

  Every Man for Himself, Duckworth, 1996.

  Master Georgie, Duckworth, 1998.

  According to Queeney, Little, Brown, 2001.

  The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress, Little, Brown, 2011.

  NON-FICTION

  English Journey, or The Road to Milton Keynes, Duckworth/BBC, 1984.

  Forever England: North and South, Duckworth/BBC, 1987.

  Something Happened Yesterday, Duckworth, 1993.

  Front Row: Evenings at the Theatre, Continuum, 2005.

  SHORT STORIES

  Mum and Mr Armitage, Duckworth, 1985.

  SELECTED JOURNALISM

  ‘It’s my turn now . . . says writer Beryl Bainbridge’, Newsagent and Bookshop, 18 September 1976.

  ‘Facing backwards’, New Review, October 1977.

  ‘Words fail me’, Radio Times, 17 February 1979.

  ‘The lullaby sound of houses falling down’, The Sunday Times, 19 July 1981.

  ‘Beryl Bainbridge says . . .’, The Times, 3 September 1981.

  ‘Priestley: a message for all times’, The Times, 17 August 1984.

  ‘Diary’, The Spectator, 16 February 1985.

  ‘Ghosts of Christmas past’, Image, December 1986.

  ‘Going spare in no man’s land’, Evening Standard, 5 November 1987.

  ‘Banking on old remedies’, Evening Standard, 21 January 1988.

  ‘Rubble, toil and troubles’, Evening Standard, 21 April 1988.

  ‘Picking up the pieces of life’, Evening Standard, 28 April 1988.

  ‘Beryl Bainbridge and Alice Thomas Ellis chat’, Guardian, 13 September 1988.

  ‘Home is where the hearth is’, Evening Standard, 17 March 1989.

  ‘The night I walked out on Lennon’, Evening Standard, 19 January 1990.

  ‘Opponents in the generation game’, Guardian, 5 April 1990.

  ‘Drape expectations’, Evening Standard, 4 January 1991.

  ‘Knocked out into never-never land’, Sunday Telegraph, 1 March 1992.

  ‘Sweet and sour idylls’, Daily Mail, 13 November 1993.

  ‘Pen friends’, Daily Express, 17 November 1996.

  ‘The year I grew up’, Independent, 11 July 1999.

  ‘My father, cabin boy’, Sunday Telegraph, 5 December 1999.

  ‘Kindred spirits’, Guardian, 19 March 2005.

  ‘Bittersweet symphony’, Guardian, 21 April 2007.

  ‘The Liverpool that I loved has gone for ever: Merseyside memories in the European capital of culture’, The Spectator, 12 December 2007.

  ‘Made in England’, Arts Council, 2008.

  ‘My father would rant and rave for weeks – but he was still superior’, Daily Mail, 9 February 2008.

  ‘My heart attack worked wonders’, The Sunday Times, 26 October 2008.

  ‘The day I was nearly shot dead by my mother-in-law’, Daily Mail, 5 February 2009.

  SELECTED NEWSPAPER PROFILES AND INTERVIEWS

  Anon. ‘Bitter sweet Beryl,’ Liverpool Daily Post, 19 October 1979.

  Baker, John F. ‘Beryl Bainbridge: total immersion in the past’, Publishers Weekly, 9 November 1998.

  Barber, Lynn. ‘Beryl’s Perils’, Observer, 19 August 2001.

  Boucher, Caroline. ‘How we met: Beryl Bainbridge and Bernice Rubens’, Independent, 11 July 1993.

  Brooks, Richard. ‘The Secret Lust of Bainbridge and Bonaparte’, The Sunday Times, 23 January 2011.

  Brown, Craig. ‘Beryl Bainbridge, an ideal writer’s childhood’, The Times, 4 November 1978.

  Byrnes, Sholto. ‘Beryl Bainbridge: echoes of a rackety life’, Independent, 17 May 2004.

  Carrier, Dan. ‘A tale of two authors’, Camden New Journal, 4 November 2005.

  Cleave, Maureen. ‘Will the real Beryl Bainbridge sit down and write a novel?’ Over 21, April 1979.

  Cobb, Richard. ‘Portrait of the dictator as a young artist’, New Society, 16 November 1978.

  Coleman, Pamela. ‘My best teacher’, The Times Educational Supplement, 29 January 1999.

  Cr
otta, Carol. ‘Beryl Bainbridge writes portrait of young Hitler’, Los Angeles Examiner, 25 June 1979.

  Crowley, Jeananne. ‘In Priestley’s footsteps’, Radio Times, 24 March 1984.

  Edwards, Christopher. ‘Minding his own business’, The Spectator, 17 April 1992.

  Foster, William. ‘Childhood stories’, Scotsman, 15 October 1977.

  Franks, Alan. ‘Act one, scene two’, The Times, 7 April 1992.

  Garratt, Pat. ‘The sad, mad, funny world of Beryl Bainbridge’, Woman’s Journal, 1979.

  Green, Alfred. ‘Eyes left for Capt. Dalhousie’, Liverpool Echo, 30 September 1972.

  Guppy, Shusha. ‘Beryl Bainbridge: the art of fiction’, Paris Review, no. 157, 2000.

  Hamilton, Alex. ‘Arts Guardian’, Guardian, 29 November 1974.

  Hanscom, Leslie. ‘A writer whose public consists of critics’, Newsday, 14 March 1976.

  Harris, Martyn. ‘Biting hard on the bullet-hole’, Sunday Telegraph, 24 March 1991.

  Haycraft, Colin, ‘Publishing Beryl Bainbridge’, Bookseller, no. 240, 5 September 1981.

  Jones, Victoria. ‘A life in the day of Beryl Bainbridge, novelist and playwright’, The Sunday Times Magazine, 17 August 1983.

  Kellaway, Kate. ‘Beryl, come on down’, Observer, 25 October 1998.

  Lewin, Matthew. ‘From Buffalo to Georgia by the Bainbridge route’, Ham & High, 12 February 1982.

  Lyndon, Neil. ‘Beryl said . . .’, Radio Times, 13 March 1976.

  Marshallsea, Gareth. ‘Beryl Bainbridge: dressmaker novelist’, Books & Bookmen, February 1974.

  May, Yolanta. ‘Beryl Bainbridge talks to Yolanta May’, New Review, December 1976.

  Miller, Karl. ‘A novelist worth knowing’, The New York Review of Books, 16 May 1974.

  Parkin, Molly. ‘Pickled in a bottle factory: the very idea!’, Evening Standard, 16 November 1974.

  Petschek, Willa. ‘Beryl Bainbridge and her tenth novel’, The New York Times, 1 March 1981.

  Price, Carol. ‘The art of the novelist’, The Sunday Times Magazine, 27 October 1985.

  Salkeld, Luke. ‘Love across enemy lines’, Daily Mail, 16 August 2007.

  Straub, Peter. ‘The novelists: five seekers of the dream’, Vogue, August 1975.