Discovering the Creative World of Novelist Paul Bailey

Esteemed author Paul Bailey, who died in October aged 87, was acclaimed for possessing a comic brilliance, intense sympathy even for the worst personalities in his stories, and a cleverness that never felt cold. His literary works frequently delved into the role of remembrance within personal journeys, driven by witty, staccato exchanges. In addition to storytelling, he was also a memoirist, poet, and more—here is a guide to the volumes he authored.

The Ones to Keep You Company

Bailey was an outgoing person, a master conversationalist with a love for “trivial chit-chat”, as one character notes. Alongside pal author Beryl Bainbridge often enjoyed Coronation Street and debrief by phone. This pleasure in chatty conversations shines through in his books the novel Trespasses (from 1970) along with Peter Smart’s Confessions (1977). Each includes a central male figure surrounded by funny, annoying, over-the-top characters, usually kin whose gravitational pull is unavoidable. “Who wants to be normal anyway?” Ralph’s mum questions within Trespasses after he discloses his homosexuality. Like an evening with your smartest, cheekiest pal.

The Ones to Make You Laugh and Cry

Bailey wrote brilliantly about aging, early and late in his career. His debut novel the novel At the Jerusalem (from 1967) details the life of Faith Gadny as she adjusts to a care facility, where fellow residents provide kindness lacking from staff, whose concern through questions “Aren’t you watching television?”. Within his second-last book Chapman’s Odyssey (2011), an aged patient alternates between arguing with doctors (“My wine selection is exclusive”, he states following criticism of his liver) and being flooded by memories involving his mum, partners, classic characters like Dickens’s Pip to Austen’s Emma. Both books contain funny exchanges yet shadowed by the inevitable conclusion. In his stories, smiles are deceptive. Within At the Jerusalem, “the matron smiled, shut the smile off quickly”; The character giggles with unease upon challenge to her conduct. In that novel, Harry advises that “my grins are misleading”. Readers’ smiles, however, are authentic.

For the Reality Behind the Stories

In addition to fiction, Bailey was a talented life writer, publishing two autobiographies. An Immaculate Mistake (published in 1990) is a masterwork of reminiscence, the heading taken from his mother’s words that “You were our mistake. You ought not to be here, by rights.”. (“Elderly, she disclosed hidden truths,” he comments. “This secret, she realized, would intrigue me.”) This book reveals the roots of misguided, loving, frustrating parents within his fiction. It likewise portrays an evocative portrait of a homosexual young man in that era, when same-sex acts were criminal, and his kin viewed it as suspicious that a son would purchase flowers for his mum; and of an aspiring actor (Bailey acted before writing) who learned Hamlet by age fifteen. His follow-up autobiography the book A Dog’s Life (published in 2004) concentrates on days with his pet Circe, his previous lover David, his fondness for Romania—that influenced future works including Kitty and Virgil, Uncle Rudolf, plus The Prince’s Boy—and plenty of gossip, with a story regarding Iris Murdoch calling an audience member a “foolish person”.

If You’re Pressed for Time

Bailey’s novels tend to be short—the notable Old Soldiers (published in 1980) is just over 100 pages—however, for a more condensed choice, sample his verse from later years. The two collections the poetry collection Inheritance (published in 2019) and also Joie de Vivre (2022) display Bailey’s wit, empathy, precision in small packages. These poems are rich with mortality and existence. Two affectionate topics reappear: about his parent (“I feel nearer to you now—/ I must confess—/ than when you lived”) and for his spouse Jeremy Trevathan. In Amazement, he writes of the joy of enjoying “foolish television” side by side, concluding with: “It’s remarkable, this simple act of consuming cheese and wine as darkness falls.”

For a Single Must-Read

Most agree that Paul Bailey’s boldest work remains Gabriel’s Lament, a Booker Prize finalist in 1986. (He also judged the prize in 1982, a role he disliked.) This novel Bailey felt proudest of, even though “it consumed all his energy”. It relates the narrative of Gabriel Harvey, whose mum disappears and a father who becomes a intolerable pretentious person following a financial windfall, and the two might be related. It serves as a portrait of the city in that era, an account of psychological collapse, and as funny and sad like his other works. Additionally, it prompted a follow-up, Sugar Cane (published in 1993), that he investigated by going to such places to watch.