🔗 Share this article Exploring the Written Universe of Novelist Paul Bailey Esteemed author Paul Bailey, who died in October aged 87, was acclaimed for a humorous talent, intense sympathy including for the worst personalities in his stories, and an intelligence that was never clinical. His fiction repeatedly investigated the power of memory in shaping lives, propelled by witty, staccato exchanges. In addition to storytelling, he also excelled as a poet, memoir writer, and additional roles—here is a guide to the volumes he authored. The Ones to Keep You Company Bailey was a gregarious individual, a master conversationalist with a love for “trivial chit-chat”, as one character notes. Alongside pal author Beryl Bainbridge used to view Coronation Street and debrief by phone. This enjoyment of gossipy exchanges appears within his books the book Trespasses (published in 1970) along with Peter Smart’s Confessions (1977). The two present a central male figure surrounded by funny, annoying, over-the-top characters, often close relatives whose gravitational pull is unavoidable. “Who wants to be normal anyway?” asks the mother of Ralph within Trespasses when he reveals he is gay. Like an evening with your most clever, daring companion. Works That Evoke Laughter and Tears Paul Bailey authored superbly on old age, at both ends of his writing journey. His first book At the Jerusalem (published in 1967) details Faith Gadny’s experiences while she adapts to a nursing home, where fellow residents offer warmth absent in employees, who show interest through questions “Why not view the TV, ladies?”. In his penultimate novel Chapman’s Odyssey (2011), a senior in hospital moves between arguing with doctors (“I only drink superior wines”, he insists when scolded for liver results) and experiencing a rush of recollections involving his mum, partners, classic characters like Dickens’s Pip to Austen’s Emma. The two works contain funny exchanges however tinged with the inevitable conclusion. In Bailey’s fiction, grins are unreliable. In At the Jerusalem, “the matron grinned, then ended it abruptly”; The character giggles with unease if her actions are questioned. In Chapman’s Odyssey, Harry advises that “my laughter is not genuine”. Readers’ smiles, however, are authentic. If You Want the Facts Behind the Fiction Besides novels, The author excelled as a skilled autobiographer, issuing two personal accounts. An Immaculate Mistake (from 1990) serves as a classic of reminiscence, the heading taken from his mother’s words that “You were our mistake. You ought not to be here, by rights.”. (“Aged, she was releasing her confidences,” he adds. “This one, she knew, would be of particular interest to me.”) Here we see the roots for confused, affectionate, irritating parental figures in his novels. Additionally, it depicts a beautiful image of a boy discovering his sexuality during the mid-20th century, during a time of anti-gay laws, and his family found it odd that a son would purchase flowers for his mum; and of a hopeful performer (Bailey acted preceding his literary career) who could recite Hamlet as a teen. His second memoir A Dog’s Life (2004) focuses on life with his mongrel puppy Circe, his former partner David, his affection for Romania—which motivated subsequent books such as the novel Kitty and Virgil, the title Uncle Rudolf, and the book The Prince’s Boy—and heaps of rumors, featuring an anecdote regarding Iris Murdoch labeling a listener an “idiot”. When Time Is Limited Bailey’s novels are mostly concise—the powerful Old Soldiers (from 1980) is just over 100 pages—however, for a more condensed choice, sample his verse from later years. The two collections Inheritance (published in 2019) and also the title Joie de Vivre (released in 2022) showcase his cleverness, sympathy, exactness in brief format. These verses are full of endings and beginnings. Two affectionate topics reappear: about his parent (“Now I’m closer—/ I have to say—/ than in life”) and for his civil partner Jeremy Trevathan. Within the poem Amazement, he writes of the joy of viewing “a silly TV show” as a couple, ending with: “It’s remarkable, this simple act of consuming cheese and wine as darkness falls.” When Choosing Just One There is little debate that Bailey’s most ambitious novel remains the novel Gabriel’s Lament, a Booker Prize finalist in 1986. (He also judged the prize in 1982, an experience he despised.) This novel Bailey felt proudest of, although “it drained me. It took everything out of me”. It relates Gabriel Harvey’s story, whose mother vanishes and whose father turns into an unbearable snob after inheriting wealth, and the two might be related. It acts as a representation of London in the 1900s, a tale of emotional unraveling, and as funny and sad similar to his entire output. For more, it inspired a follow-up, Sugar Cane (published in 1993), which the author studied by attending brothels to observe.