Editing Beryl Bainbridge

{{short description|English writer (1932–2010)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2014}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| honorific_prefix   = [[Dame]]
| name               = Beryl Bainbridge
| honorific_suffix   = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|DBE}}
| image       =
| imagesize   = 200px
| caption     = Bainbridge {{circa}} 2000
| birth_date  = {{Birth date|1932|11|21|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Liverpool]], England
| death_date  = {{Death date and age|2010|7|2|1932|11|21|df=y}}
| death_place = [[London]], England
| occupation  = Novelist
| notable_works = {{Nowrap|''[[The Dressmaker (1973 novel)|The Dressmaker]]'' (1973); <br> ''[[The Bottle Factory Outing]]'' (1974); <br> ''[[An Awfully Big Adventure (novel)|An Awfully Big Adventure]]'' (1989); <br> ''[[Every Man for Himself (novel)|Every Man for Himself]]'' (1996); <br> ''[[Master Georgie]]'' (1998)}}
| spouse      = {{marriage|Austin Davies|1954|1959|end=div}}
| partner     = [[Alan Sharp]]
| children    = 3, including [[Rudi Davies]]
}}
'''Dame Beryl Margaret Bainbridge''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|DBE|sep=,|size=100}} (21 November 1932 – 2 July 2010)<ref>Frontispiece of ''Injury Time'' by Beryl Bainbridge, 1991 Penguin edition.</ref><ref>[[Nicholas Wroe|Wroe, Nicholas]] (1 June 2002), [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/jun/01/fiction.berylbainbridge "Filling in the gaps"] (Beryl Bainbridge profile), ''[[The Guardian]]''.</ref> was an English writer. She was primarily known for her works of [[psychological fiction]], often macabre tales set among the English working class. She won the [[Costa Book Awards|Whitbread Awards]] prize for best novel in [[1977 Whitbread Awards|1977]] and [[1996 Whitbread Awards|1996]], and was nominated five times for the [[Booker Prize]]. She was described in 2007 as a national treasure.<ref name=higgins>{{citation|last=Higgins|first=Charlotte|title=Bainbridge is seen through a grandson's eyes|newspaper=The Guardian|location=London, England|date=25 May 2007|url=http://books.guardian.co.uk/hay2007/story/0,,2088035,00.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120707151454/http://books.guardian.co.uk/hay2007/story/0,,2088035,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=7 July 2012|access-date=17 January 2008}}</ref> In 2008, ''[[The Times]]'' named Bainbridge on their list of the "50 greatest [[British literature|British writers]] since 1945".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article3127837.ece|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511204023/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article3127837.ece|url-status=dead|archive-date=11 May 2008|title=The 50 greatest British writers since 1945|date=5 January 2008|work=[[The Times]]|access-date= 19 February 2010 }}</ref>

==Biography==
===Early life===
Beryl Margaret Bainbridge was born in Liverpool's [[Allerton, Liverpool|Allerton]] suburb on 21 November 1932,<ref name="ODNB">{{Cite ODNB|id=102494|title=Bainbridge, Dame Beryl Margaret (1932–2010)}}</ref> the daughter of Winifred Baines and Richard Bainbridge. She grew up in the nearby town of [[Formby]]. Although she often gave her date of birth as 21 November 1934, she was born in 1932 and her birth was registered in the first quarter of 1933.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=JqQNVi1e7Tz3zwyncUDeRQ&scan=1|title=Index entry|access-date=5 July 2020|work=FreeBMD|publisher=ONS}}</ref> When German former prisoner of war Harry Arno Franz wrote to her in November 1947, he mentioned her 15th birthday.<ref name=hastings>{{citation|title=Beryl Bainbridge, a German prisoner of war and a secret love affair|last=Hastings|first=Chris|date=12 October 2005|newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|location=London|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/12/11/nberyl11.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/12/11/ixhome.html|access-date=17 November 2008}} {{dead link|date=July 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

Bainbridge enjoyed writing, and by the age of 10 she was keeping a diary.<ref name=hastings/> She had elocution lessons and, when she was 11, appeared on the [https://web.archive.org/web/20110713091656/http://www.bu.edu/phpbin/archives-cc/app/details.php?id=7372&return=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bu.edu%2Fphpbin%2Farchives-cc%2Fapp%2Fbrowse.php%3Fletter%3DB ''Northern Children's Hour'' radio show], alongside [[Billie Whitelaw]] and [[Judith Chalmers]]. She was expelled from [[Merchant Taylors' Girls' School]] in [[Great Crosby]] when she was caught with a "dirty rhyme" (as she later described it) written by someone else in her gymslip pocket.<ref name=preston>{{citation|title=Every story tells a picture|last=Preston|first=John|date=24 October 2005|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2005/10/24/boberyl.xml&page=1|access-date=17 January 2008|newspaper=Daily Telegraph}} {{dead link|date=July 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> She then went on to study at Cone-Ripman School in [[Tring]] (now the [[Tring Park School for the Performing Arts]]),<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/dame-beryl-bainbridge-novelist-whose-work-began-rooted-in-autobiography-and-which-later-developed-to-encompass-historical-subjects-2017281.html|title=Dame Beryl Bainbridge: Novelist whose work began rooted in autobiography and which later developed to encompass historical subjects|last=Levy|first=Paul|date=3 July 2010|work=The Independent}}</ref> where she found she was good at history, English, and art. The summer she left school, she fell in love with former German prisoner of war Harry Arno Franz who was waiting to be repatriated. For the next six&nbsp;years, the couple corresponded and tried to get permission for him to return to Britain so that they could marry, but permission was denied and the relationship ended in 1953.<ref name="hastings"/>

===Subsequent years===
In the following year (1954), Bainbridge married artist Austin Davies. In 1958, she attempted suicide by putting her head in a gas oven.<ref name=higgins/> The two divorced soon after, leaving Bainbridge a single mother of two&nbsp;children. Bainbridge spent her early years working as an actress, and she appeared in one 1961 episode of the soap opera ''[[Coronation Street]]'' playing an anti-nuclear protester. She later had a third child by [[Alan Sharp]], the actress [[Rudi Davies]] (born 1965).<ref name=hastings/> Sharp, a Scotsman, was at the start of his career as novelist and screenwriter; Bainbridge would later let it be thought that he was her second husband; in truth, they never married but the relationship encouraged her on her way to fiction.

To help fill her time, Bainbridge began to write, primarily based on incidents from her childhood.  Her first novel, ''[[Harriet Said...]]'', was rejected by several publishers, one of whom found the central characters "repulsive almost beyond belief".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/jun/01/fiction.berylbainbridge|title=Filling in the Gaps|date=31 May 2002|first=Nicholas|last=Wroe|newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref> It was eventually published in 1972, four years after her third novel (''Another Part of the Wood''). Her second and third novels were published (1967/68) and were received well by critics although they failed to earn much money.<ref name=preston/><ref>{{citation|last=Brown|first=Craig|title=Beryl Bainbridge: an ideal writer's childhood|newspaper=[[The Times]]|date=4 November 1978|page=14}}.</ref> She wrote and published seven more novels during the 1970s, of which the fifth, ''[[Injury Time (novel)|Injury Time]]'', was awarded the [[Whitbread prize]] for best novel in 1977.

In the late 1970s, she wrote a screenplay based on her novel ''[[Sweet William (novel)|Sweet William]]''. [[Sweet William (film)|The resulting film]], starring [[Sam Waterston]], was released in 1980.<ref name=canby>{{citation|last=Canby|first=Vincent|title=Sweet William (1979)|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=18 June 1982|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9D05E6DA103BF93BA25755C0A964948260|access-date=17 January 2008}}</ref>

From 1980 onwards, eight more novels appeared. The 1989 novel, ''[[An Awfully Big Adventure (novel)|An Awfully Big Adventure]]'', was adapted into [[An Awfully Big Adventure|a film in 1995]], starring [[Alan Rickman]] and [[Hugh Grant]].

In the 1990s, Bainbridge turned to historical fiction. These novels continued to be popular with critics, but this time, were also commercially successful.<ref name=preston/> Among her historical fiction novels are ''[[Every Man for Himself (novel)|Every Man for Himself]]'', about the 1912 Titanic disaster, for which Bainbridge won the [[1996 Whitbread Awards]] prize for best novel, and ''[[Master Georgie]]'', set during the [[Crimean War]], for which she won the 1998 [[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]] for fiction. Her final novel, ''[[According to Queeney]]'', is a fictionalized account of the last years of the life of [[Samuel Johnson]] as seen through the eyes of [[Hester Maria Elphinstone, Viscountess Keith|Queeney Thrale]], eldest daughter of [[Henry Thrale|Henry]] and [[Hester Thrale]]. ''The Observer'' referred to it as a "...highly intelligent, sophisticated and entertaining novel".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/aug/26/fiction.berylbainbridge|first=Adam |last=Sisman|title=Madness and the mistress|newspaper=[[The Observer]]|date=26 August 2001|access-date=8 May 2013}}</ref>

From the 1990s, Bainbridge also served as a theatre critic for the monthly magazine ''[[The Oldie]]''. Her reviews rarely contained negative content, and were usually published after the play had closed.<ref name=preston/> A collection of reviews 1992-2002 were published in the book "Front Row: Evenings at the Theatre". The introduction described her theatrical experience, from winning a talent competition to assistant stage manager in Liverpool to occasional acting roles.

===Final years===
In 2003, Bainbridge's grandson Charlie Russell began filming a documentary, ''Beryl's Last Year'', about her life. The documentary detailed her upbringing and her attempts to write a novel, ''Dear Brutus'' (which later became ''[[The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress]]''). It was broadcast in the United Kingdom on 2 June 2007 on [[BBC Four]].

In 2009, Bainbridge donated the short story ''Goodnight Children, Everywhere'' to Oxfam's [[Ox-Tales]] project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Her story was published in the "Air" collection. Bainbridge was the patron of the People's Book Prize.

Bainbridge was still working on ''[[The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress]]'' at the time of her death. The novel, which was based on a real-life journey Bainbridge made across America in 1968, is about the mystery girl reputed to have been involved in the [[assassination of Robert Kennedy]]. The novel, which was published in May 2011 by [[Little, Brown]],<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/8494723/Beryl-Bainbridge-last-masterpiece-of-an-obsessive.html|title=Beryl Bainbridge last masterpiece of an obsessive|first=Lorna |last= Bradbury|newspaper=Daily Telegraph|date=7 May 2010|access-date=10 May 2011}}</ref> was edited for publication by Brendan King, whose biography ''Beryl Bainbridge: Love by All Sorts of Means'' was published in September 2016.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/beryl-bainbridge-9781472947338/|title=Beryl Bainbridge. Love by All Sorts of Means: A Biography|first=Brendan|last=King|publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing|Bloomsbury]]|date=24 February 2016|access-date=9 February 2023|archive-date=16 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170616220103/http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/beryl-bainbridge-9781472908537/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Death==
[[File:Beryl Bainbridge Grave.jpg|thumb|right|Bainbridge's grave in [[Highgate Cemetery]]]]
Bainbridge had been a heavy smoker for much of her life.<ref>See ''The Economist'' obituary, 17 July 2010, p. 90.</ref> Her cancer returned and she died on 2 July 2010, aged 77, in a [[London]] hospital.<ref>{{cite news |title=Dame Beryl Bainbridge, novelist, died on July 2nd, aged 77 |url=http://www.economist.com/node/16588090 |newspaper=[[The Economist]] |date=15 July 2010 |access-date=25 December 2010 }}</ref> Confusion over her birth year resulted in some reports giving her age at death as 75.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/10489407.stm|title=Dame Beryl Bainbridge dies at 75|work=[[BBC News]]|date=2 July 2010|access-date=2 July 2010}}</ref> She is buried in [[Highgate Cemetery]].

==Honours and awards==
In 2000, Bainbridge was appointed [[Order of the British Empire|Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] (DBE). In June 2001, she was awarded an [[honorary degree]] by the [[Open University]] as Doctor of the University.<ref>{{cite news|title=Dame Beryl Bainbridge, Doctor of the University|url=http://www.open.ac.uk/students/ceremonies/files/ceremonies/file/Doctor%20of%20the%20University%201973-2011.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213042428/http://www.open.ac.uk/students/ceremonies/files/ceremonies/file/Doctor%20of%20the%20University%201973-2011.pdf|archive-date=13 December 2013}} Retrieved 4 August 2013.</ref> In 2003, she was awarded the [[David Cohen Prize]] for Literature together with [[Thom Gunn]]. In 2005, the [[British Library]] acquired many of Bainbridge's private letters and diaries.<ref name=hastings/>

Following Bainbridge's death in 2010, the Man Booker Prize set up a "Best of Beryl" prize, the nominees being her books that had previously been shortlisted: ''[[The Dressmaker (1973 novel)|The Dressmaker]]'', ''[[The Bottle Factory Outing]]'', ''[[An Awfully Big Adventure]]'', ''[[Every Man for Himself (novel)|Every Man for Himself]]'', and ''[[Master Georgie]]''; by a public vote, ''Master Georgie'' was chosen as the winner.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/features/the-booker-prize-and-the-best-of-beryl-bainbridge|title=The Booker Prize and the best of Beryl Bainbridge|website=The Booker Prizes|date=26 May 2022|access-date=8 February 2022}}</ref> In 2011, Bainbridge was posthumously awarded a special honour by the Booker Prize committee.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://themanbookerprize.com/news/stories/1474|title=The Man Booker 'Best of Beryl'|website=The Man Booker Prizes|date=8 February 2011|access-date=8 February 2023|archive-date=21 May 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110521060732/http://themanbookerprize.com/news/stories/1474|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/feb/08/beryl-bainbridge-booker-prize|title=Beryl Bainbridge earns a Booker at last|first=Mark|last=Brown|newspaper=The Guardian|date=8 February 2023}}</ref>

[[Mark Knopfler]] included a song titled "Beryl" dedicated to her and her posthumous award on his 2015 album ''[[Tracker (album)|Tracker]]''.<ref>{{cite web |date=18 January 2015 |title=Mark Knopfler unveils new song 'Beryl' |first=Dean |last=Van Nguyen|website=NME |url=http://www.nme.com/news/mark-knopfler/82302 |access-date=20 January 2015}}</ref> In 2016, a [[Blue Plaque]] was unveiled at the house she resided in while growing up in Formby.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/stories/blue-plaque-beryl|title = A Blue Plaque for Beryl|publisher=National Museums Liverpool}}</ref>

==Bibliography==

===Novels===
*''A Weekend with Claude'' (1967)
*''Another Part of the Wood'' (1968)
*''[[Harriet Said...]]'' (1972)
*''[[The Dressmaker (1973 novel)|The Dressmaker]]'' (US title ''The Secret Glass'') (1973) – shortlisted for Booker Prize
*''[[The Bottle Factory Outing]]'' (1974) – shortlisted for Booker Prize, won the [[Guardian Fiction Prize]]
*''[[Sweet William (novel)|Sweet William]]'' (1975)
*''[[A Quiet Life (novel)|A Quiet Life]]'' (1976)
*''[[Injury Time (novel)|Injury Time]]'' (1977) - winner, Whitbread Prize
*''[[Young Adolf]]'' (1978)
*''Another Part of the Wood'' (revised edn) (1979)
*''Winter Garden'' (1980)
*''A Weekend with Claude'' (revised edn) (1981)
*''Watson's Apology'' (1984)
*''Filthy Lucre'' (written as a teenager in 1946 but published 1986)
*''[[An Awfully Big Adventure (novel)|An Awfully Big Adventure]]'' (1989) – shortlisted for Booker Prize
*''[[The Birthday Boys]]'' (1991)
*''[[Every Man for Himself (novel)|Every Man for Himself]]'' (1996) – shortlisted for Booker Prize, winner of the Whitbread Prize
*''[[Master Georgie]]'' (1998) – shortlisted for Booker Prize
*''[[According to Queeney]]'' (2001)
*''[[The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress]]'' (2011)

===Short story collections===
*''[[Mum and Mr. Armitage]]'' (1985)
*''Collected Stories'' (1994)
*''Northern Stories Vol. 5'' (co-editor with David Pownall) {{ISBN|978-0-946407-97-2}} (1994)

===Non-fiction===
*''English Journey, or The Road to Milton Keynes'' (1984)
*''Forever England: North and South'' (1987)
*''Something Happened Yesterday'' (1993)
*''Front Row: Evenings at the Theatre'' (2005)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{cite journal| url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/561/the-art-of-fiction-no-164-beryl-bainbridge| journal= The Paris Review | title=Beryl Bainbridge, The Art of Fiction No. 164| date=Winter 2000| author=Shusha Guppy | volume= Winter 2000 | issue= 157 }}
{{wikiquote}}
* {{IMDb name|id=0047748|name=Beryl Bainbridge}}
* [http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,6000,538873,00.html ''Guardian'' interview]
* [http://books.guardian.co.uk/authors/author/0,5917,-14,00.html "Author page"] at ''The Guardian''
* [http://www.enotes.com/contemporary-literary-criticism/bainbridge-beryl Beryl Bainbridge Criticism (Vol. 131)]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110713091656/http://www.bu.edu/phpbin/archives-cc/app/details.php?id=7372&return=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bu.edu%2Fphpbin%2Farchives-cc%2Fapp%2Fbrowse.php%3Fletter%3DB Beryl Bainbridge biography]
* {{British council|id=beryl-bainbridge|name=Dame Beryl Bainbridge}}
* [http://www.theoldie.co.uk ''The Oldie Magazine'']
* [https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/03/books/03bainbridge.html?hpw "Beryl Bainbridge, Mordant Novelist, Is Dead at 77"], ''The New York Times'', 2 July 2010
* [http://thoughtcatalog.com/2010/beryl-bainbridge/ Beryl Bainbridge: 1932 – 2010], Thought Catalog
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110521060732/http://themanbookerprize.com/news/stories/1474 The Man Booker Prize: Special Prize for Beryl Bainbridge]
* [http://global.oup.com/oxforddnb/info/freeodnb/pod/ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography audio podcast] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161101202822/http://global.oup.com/oxforddnb/info/freeodnb/pod/ |date=1 November 2016 }} –- issued in January 2014 (find under literary listings)

{{Beryl Bainbridge}}
{{David Cohen Prize}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bainbridge, Beryl}}
[[Category:1932 births]]
[[Category:2010 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century English novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century English women writers]]
[[Category:21st-century English novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century English women writers]]
[[Category:British Book Award winners]]
[[Category:Burials at Highgate Cemetery]]
[[Category:Costa Book Award winners]]
[[Category:Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:David Cohen Prize recipients]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in England]]
[[Category:English women novelists]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature]]
[[Category:James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients]]
[[Category:Novelists from Liverpool]]
[[Category:People educated at Merchant Taylors' Girls' School]]
[[Category:People educated at Tring Park School for the Performing Arts]]
[[Category:People from Formby]]
[[Category:Writers from Liverpool]]