The Bell - Brossura

Iris Murdoch was born in Dublin on July 15th 1919 of Anglo-Irish parents. She went to Badminton School, Bristol, and read classics at Somerville College, Oxford. During the war she was an Assistant Principal at the Treasury, and then worked with U.N.R.R.A. in London, Belgium and Austria. She held a studentship in philosophy at Newnham College, Cambridge for a year, and, in 1948, returned to teach philosophy in Oxford as a Fellow of St Anne’s College.

Iris Murdoch made her debut as a novelist in 1954 with Under the Net and in 1956 she married John Bayley, teacher and critic. She was awarded the C.B.E. in 1976 and was made a D.B.E. in the 1987 New Year’s Honours List. Iris went on to produce 26 novels in 40 years. The last was written when she was already suffering from Alzheimer disease. Iris Murdoch died on February 8th 1999 in Oxford.