Bainbridge, Beryl (1934-2010), an English novelist, gained international recognition for her fiction about the quirks of human relationships. She portrayed the tragic, unfulfilled lives of her characters with psychological realism but also with satire and humor. Much of Bainbridge’s fiction reflects her years growing up in her birthplace of Formby, near Liverpool.
Many of Bainbridge’s novels deal with cruelty. The central character in her first published novel, A Weekend with Claud (1967), is a violent, ruthless man. Another Part of the Wood (1968) explores the death of a child through adult neglect. Harriet Said (written in 1958 but not published until 1972) deals with two teenage girls who seduce a married man. The Dressmaker (1973) is a suspenseful, partly autobiographical story about a young woman living with two aunts in Liverpool during World War II (1939-1945). The novel was published in the United States as The Secret Glass. Autobiographical elements also appear in the novels The Bottle Factory Outing (1974), Sweet William (1975), A Quiet Life (1976), and Injury Time (1977).
Bainbridge expanded her subject matter to history and adventure, beginning with Young Adolf (1978), a fictionalized reunion in Liverpool between the German Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler as a young man and his half-brother. Winter Garden (1980) is a satirical novel about a group of artists invited to visit the Soviet Union. Watson’s Apology (1984) is based on a famous English murder of the 1800’s.
Bainbridge returned to her autobiographical manner in An Awfully Big Adventure (1989), about a young woman working as an assistant stage manager in a local theater. The Birthday Boys (1991) is based on British explorer Robert F. Scott’s expedition to the South Pole in 1911 and 1912. Every Man for Himself (1996) centers on the sinking of the luxury ocean liner Titanic on its first voyage in 1912. Master Georgie (1998) is a historical novel about a surgeon who leaves Liverpool with three friends to serve in the Crimean War (1853-1856). The novel received a special Man Booker Prize in 2011, after Bainbridge’s death. The prize, now called the Booker Prize, is a major literary award in the United Kingdom. The central character of According to Queenie (2001) is the famous English writer and scholar Samuel Johnson.
Beryl Margaret Bainbridge was born on Nov. 21, 1934. She was an actress on the stage and on radio and television from 1943 to 1972. Her Collected Stories were published in 1994. Bainbridge also wrote plays and essays. In 2000, she was made a dame commander of the Order of the British Empire and became known as Dame Beryl Bainbridge. She died on July 2, 2010.
