Ed Wilson, of her literary agency Johnson and Alcock, said
Bainbridge died in a London hospital early Friday. She had been suffering from
cancer.
Bainbridge was born in the port city of Liverpool in
northwest England. Her agent, and her entry in “Who’s Who,” gave the date as
Nov. 21. 1934, but records show her birth was registered early in 1933.
Bainbridge herself sometimes said she struggled to remember her birth date,
ever since she lied about her age so she could take a trip to France as a
youngster without her parents’ knowledge.
The gritty spirit of Bainbridge’s home city informed her
books, which blended humor, tragedy and the absurd.
“All the books I’ve written, even the historical ones, came
from the place of my birth, the characters based on my parents and relations,”
she once said.
She published more than 15 novels, including “A Weekend With
Claud,” “The Bottle Factory Outing” and “Injury Time.” Several drew directly on
Bainbridge’s own experiences. Her early career as an actress in provincial
theater provided the setting for the tragicomic “An Awfully Big Adventure,”
published in 1989 and made into a 1995 movie starring Alan Rickman and Hugh
Grant.
As time went by, she increasingly turned to historical
settings. “Every Man for Himself” was set aboard the Titanic and “Master
Georgie” in the Crimean War, while “According to Queeney” looked at
18th-century lexicographer Samuel Johnson. “Young Adolf” imagined the aspiring
artist Hitler in Liverpool before World War I, to comic and disturbing effect.
“Beryl had an absolutely original voice: she was a serious
comedian, all of whose novels ended tragically,” writer Michael Holroyd told
The Guardian newspaper.
Bainbridge was a five-time finalist for the Booker Prize,
and twice won the Whitbread literary prize.
Kent Carroll, Bainbridge’s American publisher at Europa
Editions, called her “a wonder, kind and generous with a fine subtle sense of
humor about the absurdity of it all.” Robustly outspoken - she was no fan of
chick-lit, which she dismissed as “froth” - Bainbridge was unsentimental about
life’s hardships.
In her 20s she attempted suicide, an event she later said
she was ashamed to remember.
“Putting one’s head in the oven, yes, I think I was probably
trying to draw attention to myself,” she said.
“I am terribly ashamed. I was a bit miserable. When one is
young one has these ups and downs.” Despite her reputation as an iconoclast,
Bainbridge was delighted to be made a dame, the female equivalent of a knight,
by Queen Elizabeth II in 2000. The British government called her death “a
terrible loss.” “For over 40 years, she has been rightly recognized as one of
the world’s greats, with an original voice and tremendous spirit,” said Culture
Minister Ed Vaizey.
At the time of her death Bainbridge was working on “The Girl
in the Polka-Dot Dress,” a novel set around the assassination of Robert F.
Kennedy.
She is survived by two daughters and a son. Funeral details
were not immediately available.