Uncovering the Written World of Author Paul Bailey

The novelist Paul Bailey, who died in October aged 87, was renowned for a comic brilliance, deep empathy including for his most flawed characters, and a sharpness that was never clinical. His fiction often explored the influence of recollections within personal journeys, fueled by clever, syncopated conversations. Apart from fiction, he also excelled as a memoirist, poet, and more—here is a guide to the volumes he authored.

The Ones to Keep You Company

The author appeared as an outgoing person, a skilled communicator who adored “trivial chit-chat”, according to a fictional persona. Together with companion author Beryl Bainbridge would watch the TV show Coronation Street and debrief by phone. This enjoyment of chatty conversations is evident in his fictional works the novel Trespasses (published in 1970) and Peter Smart’s Confessions (released in 1977). Both feature a main male protagonist encircled by funny, annoying, over-the-top characters, often close relatives whose gravitational pull is unavoidable. “What’s so great about being normal?” asks the mother of Ralph in the book Trespasses when he reveals he is gay. Like an evening with your wittiest, boldest friend.

The Ones to Make You Laugh and Cry

The novelist penned excellently regarding elderly life, early and late in his career. His first book At the Jerusalem (published in 1967) details Faith Gadny’s experiences during her transition to a nursing home, where fellow residents supply compassion lacking from staff, whose concern via queries “Aren’t you watching television?”. In his penultimate novel Chapman’s Odyssey (2011), a senior in hospital switches between arguing with doctors (“My wine selection is exclusive”, he insists after reprimands over liver tests) and confronting past remembrances of his mother, lovers, literary figures like Dickens’s Pip to Austen’s Emma. Each volume include funny exchanges however tinged with impending endings. Throughout his novels, smiles are deceptive. Within At the Jerusalem, “the matron grinned, then ended it abruptly”; Mrs Gadny laughs nervously if her actions are questioned. In that novel, Harry advises that “my grins are misleading”. Readers’ smiles, however, are authentic.

If You Want the Facts Behind the Fiction

Besides novels, Bailey was a talented life writer, publishing two autobiographies. An Immaculate Mistake (from 1990) serves as a classic of reminiscence, the heading taken from his mother’s words calling him “our error” and saying he shouldn’t exist. (“Aged, she was releasing her confidences,” he comments. “This secret, she realized, would intrigue me.”) Here we see the sources of misguided, loving, frustrating parents within his fiction. Additionally, it depicts an evocative portrait of a gay youth in the 1940s–50s, when same-sex acts were criminal, and his kin viewed it as suspicious for a boy to buy his mother flowers; and of a hopeful performer (Bailey acted before writing) who could recite Hamlet as a teen. His second memoir the book A Dog’s Life (2004) centers on life with his mongrel puppy Circe, his ex-partner David, his fondness for Romania—that influenced subsequent books such as the novel Kitty and Virgil, the title Uncle Rudolf, plus The Prince’s Boy—and loads of chatter, including a tale involving author Iris Murdoch dubbing a participant a “stupid cow”.

For Those Short on Time

Bailey’s novels tend to be short—the impactful Old Soldiers (published in 1980) is just over 100 pages—however, for a more condensed choice, try his poetry in his final phase. The two collections the poetry collection Inheritance (from 2019) and also Joie de Vivre (released in 2022) showcase Bailey’s wit, empathy, precision in condensed form. These writings are rich with endings and beginnings. Two romantic motifs repeat: for his mother (“I’m closer to you now – / I need to tell you – / than I ever was in life”) and for his civil partner Jeremy Trevathan. Within the poem Amazement, he describes the joy of viewing “a silly TV show” as a couple, finishing with: “It’s amazing, somehow, to eat cheese and sip wine while the world darkens.”

For a Single Must-Read

Most agree that the author’s most expansive book is Gabriel’s Lament, nominated for the Booker in 1986. (He also judged the prize in 1982, a task he hated.) This was the book Bailey felt proudest of, although “it consumed all his energy”. It follows the narrative of Gabriel Harvey, whose mum disappears while his dad transforms into an unbearable snob upon receiving money, with possible connections. It’s a depiction of the city in that era, a story of mental breakdown, and as funny and sad as anything Bailey wrote. Additionally, it prompted a sequel, Sugar Cane (1993), that he investigated by going to such places to watch.