🔗 Share this article

The novelist Paul Bailey, whose life ended last autumn at 87, was acclaimed for possessing a comic brilliance, profound compassion extending to the worst personalities in his stories, and an intelligence that avoided being sterile. His literary works often explored the influence of recollections on human existence, fueled by witty, staccato exchanges. Apart from fiction, he worked as a memoirist, poet, and more—here is a guide to his enduring literary legacy.

---

The Ones to Keep You Company

The author appeared as a social being, an excellent talker with a love for casual small talk, according to a fictional persona. Alongside pal author Beryl Bainbridge used to view the TV show Coronation Street and debrief by phone. This enjoyment of informal dialogues shines through in his books the novel Trespasses (1970) as well as Peter Smart’s Confessions (dating to 1977). The two present a leading man besieged by funny, annoying, over-the-top characters, frequently family members whose influence is inescapable. “Why would anyone desire normality?” Ralph’s mum questions in Trespasses after he discloses his homosexuality. Like an evening with your wittiest, boldest friend.

---

Works That Evoke Laughter and Tears

The novelist penned superbly on old age, early and late in his career. His debut novel At the Jerusalem (from 1967) traces the journey of Faith Gadny as she adjusts to an old people’s residence, where fellow residents offer warmth missing from caregivers, who show interest through questions “Aren’t you watching television?”. In his penultimate novel Chapman’s Odyssey (2011), an aged patient alternates between disputing with medics (“I consume only fine wines”, he insists following criticism of his liver) and experiencing a rush of recollections of his mother, lovers, literary figures like Dickens’s Pip to Austen’s Emma. Both books are filled with funny exchanges but marked by the inevitable conclusion. In Bailey’s fiction, grins are unreliable. Within At the Jerusalem, “the matron smiled, shut the smile off quickly”; The character giggles with unease if her actions are questioned. Within Chapman’s Odyssey, Harry cautions that “my laughter is not genuine”. Your laughter, nonetheless, is sincere.

---

To Understand the Truth Beneath the Tales

Besides novels, Paul Bailey served as a gifted memoirist, releasing two self-written volumes. the memoir An Immaculate Mistake (from 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. “This secret, she realized, would intrigue me.”) Here we see the sources of misguided, loving, frustrating parents throughout his books. Additionally, it depicts a moving picture of a homosexual young man during the mid-20th century, when same-sex acts were criminal, and his kin viewed it as suspicious if a male child gifted blooms to his parent; and of an aspiring actor (The writer was on stage before writing) who memorized Hamlet at 15. His follow-up autobiography the book A Dog’s Life (published in 2004) centers on days with his pet Circe, his ex-partner David, his fondness for Romania—which motivated subsequent books such as the novel Kitty and Virgil, Uncle Rudolf, plus the book The Prince’s Boy—and loads of chatter, featuring an anecdote regarding Iris Murdoch dubbing a participant a “stupid cow”.

---

For Those Short on Time

The author’s fiction are mostly concise—the impactful Old Soldiers (published in 1980) is just over 100 pages—but for something shorter, try his poetry in his final phase. The two books the poetry collection Inheritance (from 2019) and Joie de Vivre (from 2022) showcase Bailey’s wit, empathy, precision in condensed form. These verses are rich with mortality and existence. Two affectionate topics reappear: for his mother (“I’m closer to you now – / I need to tell you – / than I ever was in life”) and for his civil partner Jeremy Trevathan. Within the poem Amazement, he describes the pleasure in “watching an idiotic TV entertainment” together, concluding with: “It’s remarkable, this simple act of consuming cheese and wine as darkness falls.”

---

For a Single Must-Read

There is little debate that the author’s most expansive book is Gabriel’s Lament, nominated for the Booker in 1986. (He was a Booker judge in 1982, a role he disliked.) This was the book Paul Bailey valued most, even though “it exhausted him completely”. It relates Gabriel Harvey’s story, whose mum disappears and whose father turns into an insufferable elitist after inheriting wealth, with possible connections. It serves as a portrait of 20th-century London, an account of psychological collapse, and as funny and sad similar to his entire output. Additionally, it prompted a subsequent book, Sugar Cane (1993), that he investigated by going to such places to watch.