Dame Beryl Bainbridge Dead at 77

Beryl Bainbridge (The Bottle Factory Outing, Every Man for Himself) died last week of complications due to cancer. The former actor and award-winning author had been called one of the best novelists of her generation. From her obituary in The Guardian:

Darkness lay at the heart of her vision and her most compelling characters. One of the publishers who rejected Harriet Said, the first novel she wrote, protested: “What repulsive little creatures you have made the central characters -- repulsive almost beyond belief!” Harriet, the heroine, is a 13-year-old child with “an evil mind”, in the words of one of her victims, who draws her friend into duplicity and murder.

The Guardian remembers Bainbridge here. The Washington Post reflects here. CBC Arts comments here.