Brigid Brophy (1929-1995) was an unconventional and experimental author of fiction and a passionate writer of non-fiction that embraced her strong political, cultural and moral views. She was also a dynamic campaigner on issues ranging from public lending rights for authors to vivisection. Her first novel, Hackenfeller’s Ape (1953), won the Cheltenham Literary prize, with Iris Murdoch’s first novel Under the Net as runner up. It was at this Festival that the two women first met. Brophy was ten years younger than Iris Murdoch. The two women established a strong friendship that probably developed into a romantic relationship in the winter of 1955-56.
The letters have more than rewarded our original convictions of their significance. They will certainly change current perceptions not only of Murdoch’s personality, but also of the kind of writer she was. They suggest that her life and relationships are more present in her fiction than has previously been thought and that her writing in the 1960s and 1970s was influenced by her intellectual engagement with Brophy.
All 1,000 letters have been transcribed and a catalogue is online. These letters will most certainly facilitate fresh research at the Centre for Iris Murdoch Studies into Murdoch’s novels, her moral philosophy and the zeitgeist of Britain in the 1960s.