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Books

Iris Murdoch’s letters just go on and on — as she herself was the first to admit

A.N. Wilson, a close friend of Murdoch’s, finds her dull and rather silly letters a sad disappointment compared to her best novels

29 October 2015

9:00 AM

29 October 2015

9:00 AM

Iris Murdoch’s emotionally hectic novels have been enjoying a comeback lately, with an excellent Radio 4 dramatisation of The Sea, the Sea, and an equally gripping rendition, on Woman’s Hour, of A Severed Head. Her books are distinguished by the rate at which her characters fall in and out of love with one another, usually leaving streams of chaos and pain behind them.

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A.N. Wilson’s memoir Iris Murdoch as I Knew Her was published in 2003.

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