The novelist Paul Bailey, whose life ended last autumn at 87, was renowned for a comic brilliance, profound compassion even for his deeply imperfect creations, and a cleverness that avoided being sterile. His fiction frequently delved into the role of remembrance on human existence, propelled by sharp, rhythmic dialogue. In addition to storytelling, he also excelled as a memoirist, poet, and more—this is an overview to the volumes he authored.
Paul Bailey proved a gregarious individual, a master conversationalist who adored casual small talk, in the words of a creation. He and friend Beryl Bainbridge used to view Coronation Street and discuss it over calls. This pleasure in informal dialogues is evident in his novels the novel Trespasses (from 1970) and Peter Smart’s Confessions (1977). The two present a leading man surrounded by comic, maddening, theatrical individuals, often close relatives whose gravitational pull is unavoidable. “Why would anyone desire normality?” asks the mother of Ralph within Trespasses upon his coming out. Similar to spending time with your most clever, daring companion.
Bailey wrote excellently regarding elderly life, at both ends of his writing journey. His first book the novel At the Jerusalem (1967) traces the life of Faith Gadny during her transition to an old people’s residence, in which other inhabitants provide kindness absent in employees, whose concern through questions “Why not view the TV, ladies?”. Within his second-last book Chapman’s Odyssey (from 2011), a senior in hospital switches between arguing with doctors (“My wine selection is exclusive”, he insists following criticism of his liver) and being flooded by memories from his parent, romances, fictional icons like Dickens’s Pip to Austen’s Emma. The two works contain humorous dialogues but marked by approaching finality. In his stories, smiles are deceptive. In At the Jerusalem, “the matron smiled, shut the smile off quickly”; Faith Gadny chuckles anxiously if her actions are questioned. In Chapman’s Odyssey, Harry warns that “my smiles aren’t what they seem”. The audience’s grins, though, are real.
Besides novels, Paul Bailey served as a skilled autobiographer, issuing two personal accounts. the memoir An Immaculate Mistake (from 1990) is a masterwork of recollection, the heading taken from his mum’s statement calling him “our error” and saying he shouldn’t exist. (“Elderly, she disclosed hidden truths,” he adds. “This one, she knew, would be of particular interest to me.”) This book reveals the origins of flawed, caring, annoying mothers and fathers in his novels. It likewise portrays an evocative portrait of a gay youth in the 1940s–50s, during a time of anti-gay laws, and his relatives considered it strange for a boy to buy his mother flowers; and of an aspiring actor (Bailey acted prior to authoring) who memorized Hamlet at 15. His subsequent life story A Dog’s Life (published in 2004) centers on life with his mongrel puppy Circe, his previous lover David, his love for Romania—which inspired later novels like Kitty and Virgil, Uncle Rudolf, as well as The Prince’s Boy—and heaps of rumors, with a story regarding Iris Murdoch calling an audience member an “idiot”.
Paul Bailey’s books are generally brief—the notable Old Soldiers (published in 1980) is just over 100 pages—but for something shorter, sample his verse from his later career. The pair of volumes Inheritance (2019) along with Joie de Vivre (2022) display Bailey’s wit, empathy, precision in brief format. These verses contain mortality and existence. Two love themes recur: for his mother (“I’m closer to you now – / I need to tell you – / than I ever was in life”) and for his partner Jeremy Trevathan. In that piece, he writes of the happiness from “watching an idiotic TV entertainment” together, finishing with: “It’s awesome, in its way, this act of eating cheese / and drinking wine, as the world keeps darkening.”
It is widely accepted that Bailey’s most ambitious novel was Gabriel’s Lament, shortlisted for the Booker prize in 1986. (He served as a judge for the award in 1982, a task he hated.) This novel Paul Bailey valued most, even though “it consumed all his energy”. It follows the tale of Gabriel Harvey, whose mum disappears and a father who becomes an unbearable snob following a financial windfall, and the two might be related. It serves as a portrait of 20th-century London, a story of mental breakdown, and both comic and tragic similar to his entire output. For more, it inspired a subsequent book, Sugar Cane (from 1993), which the author studied by going to such places to watch.
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