Table of Contents

Introduction: How do I write a Biography of Iris Murdoch as I Know Her? Chapter One - The World: Europe, Sartre and Queneau Chapter Two - The Flesh: Sex, Marriage and John Bayley Chapter Three - The Spirit: Theology, Spirituality and Simone Weil Chapter Four - The Mind: Philosopher, Teacher and Sartre, Romantic Rationalist Chapter Five - The Heart: Novelist, Magician and Under the Net Conclusion: The Flight from Becoming the Enchantress Appendix/Notes

About the Author

Frances White was born in London. As a small child she lived in Japan where she discovered reading. From then on she lived in books. Semi-educated at various schools, she talked her way into Hertford College, Oxford to read English, and briefly taught before turning towards libraries. After an M.A. in Librarianship at Loughborough University she did research for the British Library then retreated to rural Ireland where she kept goats and began a PhD on Iris Murdoch at Queen s University, Belfast. This was abandoned in favour of motherhood, hens, geese, pigs and gardening. However, her misspent youth reading Iris Murdoch caught up with her in the end and at the age of fifty - a late bloomer - she finally gained a PhD from Kingston University for a thesis on Murdoch s work, written whilst working as a cashier and horticultural buyer for the local supermarket.