There we were, Enzo the waterdragon and I, sitting on the sun-drenched verandah and listening to ABC Radio National's "The Minefield" with Waleed Aly and Scott Stephens, when the name Iris Murdoch popped up. Who was Iris Murdoch?
A quick look at wikipedia reveals her as "Dame Jean Iris Murdoch DBE (15 July 1919 – 8 February 1999), an Irish and British novelist and philosopher. Murdoch is best known for her novels about good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. Her first published novel, Under the Net (1954), was selected in 1998 as one of Modern Library's 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Her 1978 novel The Sea, the Sea won the Booker Prize. In 1987, she was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II for services to literature. In 2008, The Times ranked Murdoch twelfth on a list of 'The 50 greatest British writers since 1945'"
www.archive.org comes up with a score of books, of which "The Sea, the Sea" seems to have been one of her best-known. What an amazing find!
And, perhaps highest accolade of all, they made a movie of her life:
It stars Judi Dench as Iris Murdoch. Since Padma likes any movie with Judi Dench, and I want to know more about Iris Murdoch, I ordered it right away. That's two birds with one payment of $5.95, postage paid.
P.S. Also read the GUARDIAN article "Marriage made in Heaven".
