WHEN Iris Murdoch, one of the most famous novelists of her generation, succumbed to Alzheimer’s, John Bayley, her husband, was praised for his care and devotion. But the literary world has been stunned by a claim that he was appalled by his wife’s writing and refused to read her books.

The accusation is made in a new memoir of Murdoch’s life which depicts Bayley as a petulant and often deceptive man. The author, AN Wilson, claims that although Bayley was elevated to “near sanctity” during Murdoch’s slow decline into death, he now suspects that the former Oxford don was more akin to a “screaming hate-filled child”.

London literary critics have been shocked by the vitriolic memoir. “It is the most unpleasant and distasteful attack on a gentle and much-loved man,” said one. “It’s quite abhorrent.”

Bayley and Murdoch married in 1956 and the first book she showed her husband was The Bell, a study of homosexuality set in the west of England. According to Wilson, Bayley hated the book and felt it was written by somebody who was “completely uncongenial”.

Wilson writes: “He (Bayley) was appalled. He hated the whole tone of the book. He felt it emanated from a mind which he could not like, let alone love.” Bayley told Wilson that he felt betrayed by the way Murdoch had woven intimate details of their life together into the narrative.

The don kept his deep misgivings to himself. According to Wilson, he told his wife it was a “marvellous” book.

During a conversation that the two men subsequently had as they strolled through the grounds of Magdalen College, Oxford, Bayley admitted that because of his dismal view of The Bell he never read another of his wife’s books.

In Wilson’s account of the conversation, he even recreates Bayley’s stutter. Bayley said: “After that, whenever she finished a n-n-n-novel, she would have it typed and then show it to me for comment.

“Sometimes, I’d tell Iris how much I’d enjoyed it and mention one or two things I’d spotted in the typescript as especially good . . .

“I think she probably knows and the little f-f-fiction suits her.”

Wilson met Bayley in 1968 when he was interviewed by him for a place at New College, Oxford. The author and journalist said Bayley and Murdoch became like parents to him.

The couple had met 14 years earlier. They were to become one of the most famous literary couples in the country.

Four decades later Murdoch was confirmed to be suffering from Alzheimer’s, which Bayley called the “insidious fog”. He was dedicated in caring for his wife, which meant sleepless nights and watching her slow deterioration. She died in February 1999.

Bayley’s memoirs, which formed the basis of the 2001 film Iris, detailed his wife’s descent into dementia. They also revealed his wife’s infidelities during their 43-year marriage.

In Wilson’s book, Iris Murdoch As I Knew Her, he describes her as an intensely private woman and argues that it is “inconceivable” that she would have wanted intimate details of her life recounted for the public. He also highlights the fact that Bayley fictionalised his sexual encounters with other women in his memoirs. He says this “confusion of borders between truth and falsehood” characterises Bayley’s life.

He also tries to debunk Bayley’s status as a selfless carer. He writes: “I began to wonder whether inside this uncomplaining little leprechaun there was a screaming hate-filled child.”

Murdoch and Bayley never had children, but Wilson reveals that when he spoke to the author about the issue, she seemed devastated. He said she wept and told him: “That was something which was not to be.” He portrays Bayley as someone who “hated” children and who was jealous of anyone who took up Murdoch’s time.

Bayley’s friends last week defended his reputation and questioned Wilson’s motives for writing the book. Penelope Levy, a close family friend, said: “I don’t think he (Bayley) was selfish. The way he looked after Iris was truly miraculous. He would get little sleep and then he would wake up to find her wandering around the house.

“He is a mischievous man and a wonderful character. He is a very private and proud man, but I don’t think he is deceptive. I think it’s unlikely that he had not read her books. He always seemed to know all about them.”

Other friends suggested Bayley may have been making mischief in his conversation with Wilson and the author had mistakenly taken it seriously.

Levy said Wilson was in many ways similar to Bayley. “They were both in love with Iris and they are both the same sort of people,” she said.

Wilson and Bayley were both unavailable for comment yesterday.

Additional reporting: Stuart Collier

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