An expert on the author describes discovering 80 unknown works by the writer in Oxford.

The retreat from the secular world to a religious order was certainly not unusual prior to the Second World War, particularly for artists, but for these three novelists the impact that Stanbrook in pa...

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YouTube video by The Royal Institute of Philosophy

“You can’t write a traditional novel without giving your characters moral problems and judgments.”

Famous guests pick someone they love or admire... or both

Famous guests pick someone they love or admire... or both

First published in 1958, The Bell was Iris Murdoch’s fourth book, a sophisticated, richly textured novel that explores complicated feelings between complex individuals, encompassing faith, guilt, r…

First published in 1958, The Bell was Iris Murdoch’s fourth book, a sophisticated, richly textured novel that explores complicated feelings between complex individuals, encompassing faith, guilt, r…

Second world war paintings and sketches show novelist ‘engaging with her world in a new light’ For decades, they lay in a secret room in her attic gathering dust. Now, newly discovered artworks by the Booker prize-winning author Iris Murdoch – including the only self-portrait she is known to have painted, four surrealist landscape paintings and three sketches of female nudes – will go on display for the first time on Friday. The artworks were created at the start of the second world war when Murdoch was a student at Oxford. They expose her early interest in surrealism and fascination with the naked female form. Continue reading...

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the philosophy of the celebrated author of The Bell.

In this Birthday Lecture Daniel Read (Kingston University, UK) discusses Murdoch's dramatic work and the connections to her life, fiction and philosophy. Although lesser-known, Read makes the case tha

“You can’t write a traditional novel without giving your characters moral problems and judgments.”

To mark the tenth anniversary of the Iris Murdoch Research Center, Miles Leeson (the Director of the Center) has collected his essays from the past decade in this volume.

YouTube video by Philosophy Talk

YouTube video by Philosophy Talk

To the long list of writers known to be influenced by Murdoch, I want to add the names of Janet Frame and Susan Howatch. Janet Frame (1924– 2004) is a great writer from Dunedin, New Zealand; Susan How...