🔗 Share this article Discovering the Written Universe of Novelist Paul Bailey The novelist Paul Bailey, who died in October aged 87, was renowned for a comic brilliance, deep empathy even for the worst personalities in his stories, and an intelligence that was never clinical. His literary works repeatedly investigated the power of memory in shaping lives, driven by witty, staccato exchanges. Apart from fiction, he was also a poet, memoir writer, and additional roles—this is an overview to his enduring literary legacy. Works That Offer Solace Bailey was an outgoing person, a skilled communicator with a love for casual small talk, in the words of a creation. Alongside pal fellow writer Beryl Bainbridge used to view the serial drama Coronation Street and debrief by phone. This enjoyment of chatty conversations appears within his fictional works Trespasses (from 1970) and the title Peter Smart’s Confessions (released in 1977). Both feature a main male protagonist surrounded by funny, annoying, over-the-top characters, usually kin whose influence is inescapable. “Who wants to be normal anyway?” asks the mother of Ralph in Trespasses after he discloses his homosexuality. Like an evening with your wittiest, boldest friend. The Ones to Make You Laugh and Cry Paul Bailey authored brilliantly about aging, at both ends of his writing journey. His debut novel At the Jerusalem (published in 1967) traces the journey of Faith Gadny while she adapts to a nursing home, where other occupants supply compassion absent in employees, whose concern via queries “Why aren’t you ladies watching the television?”. In his penultimate novel the title Chapman’s Odyssey (2011), an elderly hospitalized man moves between disputing with medics (“I consume only fine wines”, he insists after reprimands over liver tests) and experiencing a rush of recollections involving his mum, partners, classic characters such as Pip from Dickens or Emma from Austen. The two works contain funny exchanges but marked by the inevitable conclusion. In Bailey’s fiction, laughter is suspect. In At the Jerusalem, “the matron grinned, then ended it abruptly”; Mrs Gadny laughs nervously when confronted about her behavior. Within Chapman’s Odyssey, Harry warns that “my grins are misleading”. Readers’ smiles, however, are authentic. To Understand the Truth Beneath the Tales Besides novels, Paul Bailey served as a gifted memoirist, issuing two personal accounts. An Immaculate Mistake (published in 1990) stands as a masterpiece of memory, the heading taken from his parent’s remark calling him “our error” and saying he shouldn’t exist. (“Elderly, she disclosed hidden truths,” he adds. “She understood this would captivate me.”) This book reveals the origins of flawed, caring, annoying mothers and fathers throughout his books. It also paints an evocative portrait of a boy discovering his sexuality in that era, when same-sex acts were criminal, and his family found it odd for a boy to buy his mother flowers; and of an aspiring actor (Bailey acted before writing) who learned Hamlet by age fifteen. His second memoir A Dog’s Life (2004) concentrates on days with his pet Circe, his previous lover David, his love for Romania—which inspired future works including the novel Kitty and Virgil, the title Uncle Rudolf, as well as The Prince’s Boy—and plenty of gossip, featuring an anecdote about Iris Murdoch labeling a listener a “stupid cow”. When Time Is Limited Paul Bailey’s books tend to be short—the impactful Old Soldiers (published in 1980) is under 100 pages—yet for an even briefer option, sample his verse from his later career. The pair of volumes Inheritance (published in 2019) along with Joie de Vivre (2022) display his humor, compassion, accuracy in condensed form. These writings contain mortality and existence. Two love themes recur: about his parent (“I’m closer to you now – / I need to tell you – / than I ever was in life”) and for his spouse Jeremy Trevathan. In Amazement, he writes of the joy of “watching an idiotic TV entertainment” together, ending with: “It’s awesome, in its way, this act of eating cheese / and drinking wine, as the world keeps darkening.” For a Single Must-Read There is little debate that Paul Bailey’s boldest work is the novel Gabriel’s Lament, nominated for the Booker in 1986. (He served as a judge for the award in 1982, a role he disliked.) This novel the author was most proud of, despite the fact “it drained me. It took everything out of me”. It follows Gabriel Harvey’s story, with a missing mother and whose father turns into a intolerable pretentious person following a financial windfall, with possible connections. It serves as a portrait of 20th-century London, a story of mental breakdown, and both comic and tragic like his other works. Additionally, it prompted a subsequent book, Sugar Cane (from 1993), which Bailey researched by visiting brothels as an observer.