Alzheimer's disease is cruel.
Yet, even if your brilliant wife was far from a jewel
of marital fidelity,
Did she deserve to be memorialized as reduced to imbecility?
In some some sly way,
having often been so overlooked in your day
with relatively little comment,
on her multiple affairs take revenge?
It certainly wasn't YOU who was regarded as a monument,
or any kind kind of literary Stonehenge.
So, in detail you chronicled the gruesome decline
of that body and mind , once so fine,
and then, when they made it into a movie,
didn't it seem rather awkwardly groovy
to earn all that loot,
to boot?
hzl
1/23/15
Iris Murdoch's widower whose book about his wife's tragic decline due to Alzheimer's was made into a film dies at 89
- John Bayley wrote best-selling memoir Iris, which charted wife's decline
- He was Dame Iris' carer during four-year battle with Alzheimer's disease
- Professor Bayley wrote two more books as part of series devoted to Iris
The widower of novelist Dame Iris Murdoch has died aged 89.
John Bayley, a Professor of English at Oxford University, wrote the best-selling memoir, Iris, which charted the tragic decline of his wife’s health and intellect to Alzheimer’s disease.
Professor Bayley was widely regarded as being extremely devoted to his wife, and was her carer during her four-year long battle with the disease.
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Devoted: John Bayley, a Professor of English at Oxford University, and his wife, Dame Iris Murdoch
The book, which was adapted into a film of the same title in 2001 featuring Judi Dench as Dame Iris and Hugh Bonneville as a young Professor Bayley, brought the novelist to a new generation of readers.
The memoir laid bare her declining health and his care, but also included details of how, in her final days, she was unable to wash herself or control her bodily functions.
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Although many regarded the work as poignant, Professor Bayley was also criticised for publishing the book before Dame Iris’s death aged 79 in 1999.
Novelist Dame Muriel Spark accused Professor Bayley of ‘muckracking’ and writing a ‘sordid’ account.
Poignant: Professor Bayler's best-selling memoir (left) and with his wife, who died aged 79 in 1999
Lasting love: Professor Bayley went on to write two more books as part of a series devoted to his wife
The book also charted his courtship of the young writer and how he fell in love when he saw her riding a bike through Oxford. The pair had never spoken.
He also admitted that his wife had a string of affairs during their 43-year marriage.
Later, Professor Bayley went on to write two more books as part of a three-part series devoted to his wife. They had been married for 43 years.
The final of the trilogy, Widower’s House, published in 2011, depicted life after his wife’s death.
Star turn: The book was adapted into a film in 2001 featuring Judi Dench (far right) as Dame Iris and Hugh Bonneville (far left) as a young Professor Bayley (centre). Also pictured, Kate Winslet and Jim Broadbent
Dame Iris is widely regarded as one of Britain’s finest authors and wrote a total of 26 books during her lifetime.
Professor Bayley was educated at Eton and became a Warton Professor of English at Oxford University. He was later awarded a CBE in 1999.
He became better known in later life for writing about his wife.
Professor Bayley, who was awarded a CBE in 1999, is survived by his second wife Audi Villers.
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