The Iris Murdoch Society podcast

In this episode Miles is joined by Gillian Dooley (Flinders University, Australia), Jan Skinner (Formerly Oxford University's Continuing Education Department), and Frances White (Chichester University) to discuss the influence of Jane Austen, George Eliot and Virginia Woolf on the thought and writing of Iris. Gillian Dooley is Honorary Associate Professor in English Literature at Flinders University Australia. Editor of From a Tiny Corner in the House of Fiction: Conversations with Iris Murdoch as well as the recent Listening to Iris Murdoch: Music Sounds and Silences recently published with Palgrave. She’s also published widely on Austen, and is the leading expert on Austen’s connections with music. Jan Skinner was formerly a tutor at Oxford's Continuing Education Department, who has published work on the connections between George Eliot and Murdoch. Frances White is author of the forthcoming monograph Iris Murdoch and Remorse with Palgrave Macmillan, as well as the co-edited collection Iris Murdoch and the Literary Imagination. She has written most detailed examination of Murdoch’s connections with Woolf in the collection Iris Murdoch Connected which is published by the University of Tennessee Press.

In this episode Miles is joined by Greg McElwain (College of Idaho, USA) and Ellie Robson (Birkbeck, University of London)to discuss the life and work of Mary Midgley. Greg is Professor and Chair of Philosophy and Religious Studies at The College of Idaho, USA. His research focuses on the thought of Mary Midgley and the intersection of animal and environmental ethics. He is the author of Mary Midgley: An Introduction (Bloomsbury, 2020) and is currently working on a book based on his interviews with Midgley from 2011-18 titled Mary Midgley on What Matters: Conversations on Science, Ethics, and Nature (Bloomsbury, forthcoming). You can buy 'Mary Midgley: An Introduction' here: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/9781350047563 Ellie recently completed her PhD at Birkbeck, University of London. In her thesis, Ellie argues that Midgley’s meta-ethics is best-read as a form of Neo-Aristotelian naturalism. Her research addresses the neglect of 20th century women philosophers from analytic philosophy and provides an explanation of Midgley’s relative oversight within this tradition.

In this episode Miles is joined by Prof. Anne Rowe (Chichester and Kingston) to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of what may be Murdoch's greatest novel. Anne is Visiting Professor at the IMRC at Chichester and Emeritus Research Fellow at Kingston. Her many books include 'Iris Murdoch' in the 'Writers and their Work' Series, which you can purchase at a discounted rate from the Society, here: https://irismurdochsociety.org.uk/product/iris-murdoch-writers-and-their-work/

In this episode Miles is joined by Nikhil Krishnan(University of Cambridge)to discuss his new book 'A Terribly Serious Adventure: Philosophy at Oxford 1900-1960'. https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/A-Terribly-Serious-Adventure-by-Nikhil-Krishnan/9781800812369 We cover the change in generational thinking, the rise of linguistic analysis and 'ordinary language philosophy', and the key figures of the time, including Ryle, Ayer, J.L. Austin and, of course, the Quartet: Anscombe, Foot, Midgley and Murdoch. Nikhil Krishnan is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Robinson College. He wrote his doctorate in Philosophy at Balliol College, Oxford and his work has appeared in the New Yorker, the New Statesman and he regularly reviews a wide range of books for the Daily Telegraph.

In this podcast is joined by Jan Skinner (Oxford) and Anne Rowe (Chichester and Kingston) to discuss the range of children and adolescents in Murdoch's work. What purpose do they serve? And why are so many damaged and dangerous? Novels discussed in depth include The Sandcastle, An Unofficial Rose, The Nice and the Good, The Sacred and Profane Love Machine, The Bell, The Green Knight, Jackson's Dilemma and The Italian Girl.

Miles is joined by Carole Sweeney (Goldsmiths University, London) and Joe Darlington (Futureworks Media, Manchester) to discuss a range of authors who emerged post-World War 2, inspired by the works of the high modernists and the French Nouveau Roman. They were writing at the same time as Murdoch, but in very different modes and genres. Do they even form a real grouping? Authors discussed, or mentioned, include: Brigid Brophy, Anthony Burgess, Christine Brooke-Rose, Angela Carter, Eva Figes, B.S. Johnson, Anna Kavan, Ann Quin, Muriel Spark, as well as those in their circles, and those who published them. Joseph Darlington is the author of The Experimentalists (Bloomsbury, 2021), as well as Christine Brooke-Rose and Post-War Literature (Palgrave, 2021), and British Terrorist Novels of the 1970s (Palgrave, 2018). He was editor of BSJ: The B.S. Johnson Journal and now co-edits the Manchester Review of Books. https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/experimentalists-9781350244405/ https://www.waterstones.com/book/christine-brooke-rose-and-post-war-literature/joseph-darlington/9783030759056 Carole Sweeney is Reader in English Literature and Goldsmith University, London and focuses on the intersections of race, class, sexualities and gender in modern and contemporary literature and culture. Her first book, From Fetish to Subject: Race, Modernism and Primitivism, examined how the colonial iconography of the black body was deployed in cultural modernism and how anti-colonial and decolonising cultural movements emerged in opposition to this aesthetic racialisation. She followed up this work by publishing widely on Francophone-African writing, in particular by women writers and then by examining racism, anti-feminism and misogyny in contemporary fiction. Her most recent book Vagabond Fictions: Gender and Experiment in British Women's Literature 1945-1970 examines the evolution of feminism and sexual identity in post-war Britain. Carole's current research project is on the continuing battleground for women's bodies and sexualities in contemporary literature and culture and will include work on feminist creative criticism. https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-vagabond-fictions.html Carole and Joe both appear in this excellent collection: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-72766-6

Miles is joined by Larry Blum (U-Mass) to discuss the life and work of Dorothy Emmet, a philosopher of the prior generation to Murdoch who work in numerous different areas of the subject. Later in her life she and Murdoch became friends ; Larry sees her work as in some ways very much in the spirit of the Quartet’s, though in other ways quite different.. Emmet and Murdoch had some significant areas of professional and personal contact. You can find out more about Larry here: www.lawrenceblum.net/ You can hear more about Larry's journey on the wonderful Five Questions Podcast: anchor.fm/kieran-setiya

Miles is joined by Megan Laverty (Columbia, USA) and Evgenia Mylonaki (Patraas, Greece) to discuss their joint reading of Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals. You can find out substantive handout for the podcast where they highlight their reading here: Megan is an Associate Professor and Director of the Philosophy and Education Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She teaches graduate courses on ethics, aesthetics, and philosophy of education. Megan is the author of Iris Murdoch’s Ethics: A Consideration of her Romantic Vision (Bloomsbury, 2007) and contributed a chapter on civility to The Murdochian Mind (Routledge, 2022) https://www.tc.columbia.edu/faculty/ml2524/ Evgenia is assistant professor of Practical Philosophy at the Philosophy Department of the University of Patras, Greece. Her written work is primarily in ethics (moral experience and virtuous reasoning) and the philosophy of action (metaphysics of action, practical knowledge, and rationality). She is the co-editor of the book Reason in Nature (out in 2022 by HUP, co-edited with Matthew Boyle, University of Chicago). https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674241046 She works on the philosophies of Iris Murdoch, Elizabeth Anscombe and Philippa Foot and I have a special philosophical interest in animal lives, in the collapse of ways of living and in art (film, photography and the novel). I am currently working on a book project with the title "Moral Growth; A Study of Ethics in Experience". You can find her published work, and her website, via these links. https://www.springerprofessional.de/en/the-individual-in-pursuit-of-the-individual-a-murdochian-account/16322292 https://periodicos.sbu.unicamp.br/ojs/index.php/manuscrito/article/view/8654130/18852 https://www.evgeniamylonaki.net/

Joining Miles to discuss Murdoch's sixth novel are Dr Frances White and Lucy Oulton, both from the Iris Murdoch Research Centre at the University of Chichester.

In this episode Miles is joined by Justin Broackes (Brown, USA) and Meredith Trexler-Drees (Notre Dame, US) to discuss and celebrate Justin's edited collection 'Iris Murdoch, Philosopher' which was published in 2012. We range across the collection, the work it inspired including Meredith's latest monograph, and discuss Justin's latest work on Murdoch's Heidegger Manuscript and his commentary on the Sovereignty of Good, both forthcoming with OUP. You can find the collection here: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/iris-murdoch-philosopher-9780198701200?cc=ro&lang=en& Justin is Professor of Philosophy at Brown, and his present research focuses on issues in metaphysics and the theory of perception, and their connections with the history of the subject. Special areas of interest include: Theory of Color and Color-Perception, from the Ancient Greeks to the present; Color-Blindness; and the Notion of Substance, and what became of that idea in the 17th and 18th centuries and after. In addition, he is working on a book on Iris Murdoch's The Sovereignty of Good and editing her monograph on Martin Heidegger. Meredith is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Kansas Wesleyan University. Her recent book, Aesthetic Experience and Moral Vision in Plato, Kant, and Murdoch: Looking Good/Being Good (Palgrave 2021) presents an extended version of Iris Murdoch’s moral vision. She is currently continuing her work on Murdoch and Kant at the Centre for Philosophy of Religion at the University of Notre Dame. You can find her latest monograph here: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-79088-2

In this episode I'm joined by Professor Larry Blum (U-Mass, USA) to discuss his recent entry on Murdoch in the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. We discuss his early interest in Murdoch in the 70s, her connections with his philosophical life and the construction of the article, as well as the difficulties in reading Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals. You can find the article here: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/murdoch/ You can find out more about Larry here: http://www.lawrenceblum.net/ You can hear more about his own journey on the wonderful Five Questions Podcast: https://anchor.fm/kieran-setiya

Miles is joined by Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman to discuss their new book, Metaphysical Animals. https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Metaphysical-Animals-by-Clare-Mac-Cumhaill-Rachael-Wiseman/9781784743284 Clare Mac Cumhaill (pronounced Mc Cool!) is a philosopher of mind, working mostly on perception, but with interests in emotion and action, as well as aspects of the metaphysics of mind, and in topics relating to aesthetics. Most of her work is on perception of space, and spatial properties. Her doctoral thesis looked at the perception of empty space and she is still somewhat hung up on this topic, though the ambit of her interests has expanded into working out what explanatory work reflection on space can do, in particular in trying to characterize the nature of our experience in ways that make it immune to skeptical re-description. With Rachael Wiseman (Liverpool), she is co-director of the In Parenthesis project, which focuses on the life, work and friendships of Iris Murdoch, Philippa Foot, Elizabeth Anscombe and Mary Midgley (sometimes called the Quartet). The project is investigating whether the collective corpus of these philosophers has the hallmarks of a distinct philosophical school. Read about it here: http://www.womeninparenthesis.co.uk/ Rachael Wiseman work at the intersection of philosophy of mind, action and ethics and has published mainly on the work of G. E. M. Anscombe and Ludwig Wittgenstein. She is currently working on an AHRC-funded project, Perception, Action and the Genesis of Everyday Ethics (PAGE). The project, with Dr Clare MacCumhaill (Durham) is a study of the lives and philosophy of 'The Quartet' of women philosophers who met at Oxford during WWII: Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley and Iris Murdoch (www.womeninparenthesis.co.uk). As well as studying the philosophy of four wonderfully creative thinkers they want to understand why there are so few women in philosophy and to work out what they might do about it! The Integrity Project (www.integrityproject.org) looks at the meaning and importance of integrity. Rachael was awarded a British Academy Rising Star Engagement Award (2016-2017) for work with a local arts organisation, Wunderbar (www.wunderbar.org.uk), exploring artistic integrity and arts fundraising.

Miles is joined by Silvia Caprioglio Panizza to discuss her new book 'The Ethics of Attention: Engaging the Real with Iris Murdoch and Simone Weil'. You can find out more about the book, here: https://www.routledge.com/The-Ethics-of-Attention-Engaging-the-Real-with-Iris-Murdoch-and-Simone/Panizza/p/book/9780367756932 Silvia Caprioglio Panizza is Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Centre for Ethics, University of Pardubice, and a fellow of the PEriTiA project (Policy, Expertise, and Trust in Action) at the Centre for Ethics in Public Life, University College Dublin. She has edited and translated Simone Weil’s Venice Saved with Philip Wilson (2019) and co-edited (with Mark Hopwood) The Murdochian Mind (Routledge, 2022).

Gillian Dooley (Flinders University, Australia) is in conversation with Lucy Bolton (QMUL, UK) about her new book, 'Listening to Iris Murdoch: Music, Sounds and Silences' (Palgrave, 2022) - the first book in the 'Iris Murdoch Today' Series. As Lucy says about the Gillian's book: 'When we think of Iris Murdoch’s relationship with art forms, the visual arts come most readily to mind. However, music and other sounds are equally important. Soundscapes – music and other types of sound – contribute to the richly textured atmosphere and moral tenor of Murdoch’s novels. This book will help readers to appreciate anew the sensuous nature of Iris Murdoch’s prose, and to listen for all kinds of music, sounds and silences in her novels, opening up a new sub-field in Murdoch studies in line with the emerging field of Word and Music Studies. This study is supported by close readings of selected novels exemplifying the subtle variety of ways she deploys music, sounds and silence in her fiction. It also covers Murdoch’s knowledge of music and her allusions to music throughout her work, and includes a survey of musical settings of her words by various composers.' Find out more here: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-00860-3

Join Anne Rowe and Miles Leeson as they guide you around London's Wallace Collection, stopping off to discuss three key paintings that feature in Murdoch's novels: Hal's Laughing Cavalier, Titian's 'Perseus and Andromeda', and Rembrandt's 'Titus, the Artist's Son'. These feature in her first novel 'Under the Net' and her Booker Prize-winning 'The Sea, The Sea', respectively. You can view them here: https://www.wallacecollection.org/art/exhibitions-displays/past-exhibitions/frans-hals-the-male-portrait/ https://wallacelive.wallacecollection.org/eMP/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=65351&viewType=detailView https://www.wallacecollection.org/art/collection/collection-highlights/titus-artists-son/ Anne Rowe is Visiting Professor at the Iris Murdoch Research Centre at the University of Chichester. Her many books include the first work on Murdoch and Art 'The Visual Arts and the Novels of Iris Murdoch', as well as 'Iris Murdoch' in the Writers and their Work Series.

In this episode I'm joined by Silvia Caprioglio Panizza (University College Dublin, and the Centre for Ethics as Study in Human Value, University of Pardubice) and Mark Hopwood (Sewanne, University of the South, USA) to discuss their recently published edited collection 'The Murdochian Mind'. Silvia Caprioglio Panizza is Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Centre for Ethics, University of Pardubice, and a fellow of the PEriTiA project (Policy, Expertise, and Trust in Action) at the Centre for Ethics in Public Life, University College Dublin. She has edited and translated Simone Weil’s Venice Saved with Philip Wilson (2019) and is the author of The Ethics of Attention: Engaging the Real with Iris Murdoch and Simone Weil (2022). Mark Hopwood is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at The University of the South, Sewanee, USA. He has published articles on a range of topics in moral philosophy, including love, narcissism, hypocrisy, and the nature of moral judgment, and is currently writing a book on Iris Murdoch’s ethics. You can find out more about the book, and purchase a copy, here: https://www.routledge.com/The-Murdochian-Mind/Panizza-Hopwood/p/book/9780367468019

To celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of Murdoch's 'Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals' I'm joined by Gillian Dooley (Flinders University, Australia), Nora Hämäläinen (University of Pardubice, Czech Republic), and Frances White (IMRC, Chichester) to give an introductory overview of the work. As this is Murdoch's magnum opus this is the first in a series of four podcasts being released in 2022 focusing on it. You can find Gillian and Nora's edited collection 'Reading Iris Murdoch's Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals' here: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-18967-9?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=google_books&utm_campaign=3_pier05_buy_print&utm_content=en_08082017 Gillian Dooley is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in English at Flinders University, Australia. She was the founding general editor of the Flinders Humanities Research Centre's electronic journal Transnational Literature from 2008-2018, and was founding co-editor of Writers in Conversation 2014-2020. She has published three monographs, several scholarly editions and more than 100 journal articles and book chapters including the co-edited Reading Iris Murdoch's Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals. Her latest work Listening to Iris Murdoch: Music, Sounds and Silences will be published in the ‘Iris Murdoch Today’ series with Palgrave Macmillan in July this year. Nora Hämäläinen is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Ethics as study in Human value at the University of Pardubice in the Czech Republic. As well as being the author of Literature and Moral Theory and Descriptive Ethics: What Does Moral Philosophy Know About Morality she is also the co-editor of Reading Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals with Gillian. She is currently working on two interrelated projects: completing a monograph called The Making of the Good Person: Moral Philosophy, Self-Help and Technologies of the Self, where I look at some discussions on self-transformation and self-development in philosophy and popular culture. She is also working on a long term project on moral change (the change and renegotiation of moral frameworks and axioms). Frances white is the deputy director of the iris Murdoch research centre at the university of Chichester. As well as publishing widely on Murdoch, including the biography Becoming Iris Murdoch in 2014 she is the co-editor of the Iris Murdoch Today series with Palgrave Macmillan and the Editor of the Iris Murdoch Review. She is currently editing Iris Murdoch and the Literary Imagination, also with Palgrave.

This lecture was given by Peter Webster, a scholar of contemporary religious history, with a particular interest in the religious arts. His most recent book was the first biography of Walter Hussey; Dean of Chichester and patron of the arts. The audio recording of a public lecture given at the University of Chichester on 19th February 2022, as part of a study day at the Iris Murdoch Research Centre. My thanks are due to Miles Leeson for the invitation, and to the audience for a very engaged and stimulating discussion afterwards. I examine Christian reactions to Murdoch’s work in three areas: her strictly philosophical work on metaphysics and ethics, and her novels. I explore the remarkable closeness of Murdoch’s distinctive preoccupations to those of British theologians in the period. However, her position outside the usual circles of Christian discourse made it difficult for her to be heard and, when she was, her fundamentally atheistic position made her philosophical work hard to digest. The final third of the paper then looks at Christian readings of her novels, in which readers found much more congenial material with which to engage. Authors discussed include: (among the theologians) Don Cupitt, Colin Gunton, Eric Mascall, Alasdair Macintyre, John A.T. Robinson, Keith Ward; among the critics: Bernard Bergonzi, Ruth Etchells, David Holbrook, Valerie Pitt. In relation to aesthetics, there is some discussion of Walter Hussey, Anglican patron of the arts. https://peterwebster.me/2022/02/21/iris-and-the-christians-what-did-the-british-churches-make-of-murdoch-1954-c1983/

In this episode Miles is joined by Lucy Bolton (Queen Mary, University of London), Lisa Smithstead (University of Exeter), and Melanie Williams (University of East Anglia)- three noted film scholars - to discuss the impact and legacy of the Oscar-winning film 'Iris', based on the first of John Bayley's memoirs about his wife, Iris Murdoch. You can find Lucy's book on Murdoch here: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-contemporary-cinema-and-the-philosophy-of-iris-murdoch.html and her essay on the film itself, here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt16d6996.10?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

In this podcast Miles is joined by Paul Fiddes, Professor of Systematic Theology at the University of Oxford, to discuss his latest book, Iris Murdoch and the Others: A Writer in Dialogue with Theology. Paul is the author or editor of over twenty five books, including recent publications on Lewis and Williams, and a forthcoming monograph on Shakespeare later in 2022. Find the book here: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Iris-Murdoch-and-the-Others-by-Paul-S-Fiddes/9780567703347 You can find out more about Paul, and his research centre, The Centre for Theology and Modern European Thought, here: https://ctmet.theology.ox.ac.uk/home

In this episode I'm joined by Justin Broackes (Brown, USA), Gary Browning (Oxford Brookes), and Alison Scott-Baumann (SOAS)to discuss Murdoch's lifelong engagement with the fiction and philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre. From her first meeting with him in Brussels in 1945, right the way through to 'Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals'. Have your copy of Sartre: Romantic Rationalist to hand! Justin is the Editor of 'Iris Murdoch, Philosopher': https://www.bookdepository.com/Iris-Murdoch-Philosopher-Justin-Broackes/9780198701200?ref=grid-view&qid=1639760683318&sr=1-1 Gary is the author of 'Why Iris Murdoch Matters': https://irismurdochsociety.org.uk/product/why-iris-murdoch-matters/ Alison is the co-editor of 'Iris Murdoch and the Moral Imagination': https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0786440260?tag=bookfinder-test-b-21&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1&language=en_GB&selectObb=new

In this podcast Miles is joined by Paul Hullah, Associate Professor of English Literature at Meiji Gakuin, and President of the Iris Murdoch Society of Japan. Paul discusses his early life, literature, music and his meeting and subsequent friendship with Iris Murdoch. He and Yozo Muroya edited the only collection of Murdoch's poetry to date, as well as a volume of her essays. We talk about her poetry and why she changed Paul's life. Unfortunately the 'Poems' collection is out-of-print, but Paul hopes to have some copies available in 2022. 'Occasional Essays' by Iris Murdoch is available via Amazon. You can find Paul's tribute to Iris here: https://youtu.be/8q7BV6c2vUE

Joining me today is Prof. Benjamin Lipscomb (Houghton College, NY, USA) to discuss his new book 'The Women are up to Something' which considers the four women who changed philosophy in the mid-Twentieth Century: Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, and Iris Murdoch. You can buy it here! https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-Women-Are-Up-to-Something-by-Benjamin-J-Bruxvoort-Lipscomb/9780197541074

The new season of the podcast starts with a special on the author, essayist, critic, spy, journalist and much else besides, Elizabeth Bowen. She was a friend of Iris Murdoch (whom she influenced) 'I was very fond of her...she should have been Queen', Virginia Woolf, and many more. She's now seen as a major figure of Twentieth Century culture. Joining me to discuss her life and work are Nicola Darwood (University of Bedfordshire, Allan Hepburn (McGill University, Canada), and Nicolas Royle (University of Sussex). All three have written and published widely on Bowen's work and are experts in the field. The Bowen - Welty Letters mentioned can be found here: https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/iur.2021.0501 More on the relationship between Bowen and Murdoch here. https://irismurdochsociety.org.uk/2020/09/01/literary-motherhood-elizabeth-bowen-and-iris-murdoch/

*The handout for this lecture is available on the IMS Facebook Page (link in Bio) or by emailing [email protected] Cora Diamond is a leading American philosopher who is well known for her contributions to the interpretation of Wittgenstein and Frege, for her contributions to the philosophy of logic, mind, language, as well as to ethics, the philosophy of literature, and the philosophical inquiry into our relation as humans to other animals. Her three areas of greatest influence are in the philosophical foundations of logic, the interpretation of Wittgenstein, and the ethical treatment of animals. Partly under the influence of lessons she arrives at through her own original reading of Wittgenstein, she has criticised mainstream tendencies in analytic philosophy across a dizzying range of subdisciplines. Alongside publishing a dozen or so of the most widely discussed articles on Wittgenstein ever written, she has written several dozen articles advancing powerful and influential criticisms of almost every major living figure who takes themselves to be applying Wittgenstein’s ideas to some major area of philosophical research – be it in philosophical logic, contemporary moral theory, animal studies, philosophy and literature, or the study of the history of the analytic tradition of philosophy. Her work has thereby given rise to one whole movement in the interpretation of Wittgenstein (known in the contemporary literature as the resolute reading), to yet another in contemporary moral philosophy and metaethics (known as the realistic spirit approach to ethical problems), and to yet a third in the more narrowly focused field of the moral status of animals (known as the our fellow creatures approach). She has taught at the Universities of Swansea, Sussex, Aberdeen and since 1971 at the University of Virginia, where she is now professor emerita.

This 'In Conversation' talk was given as part of the first online Iris Murdoch Conference on the 15th July, 2021. Sarah and Avril discuss the importance of Iris’ use of the gothic, and the impact it had on Sarah's own fiction. Avril Horner (Emeritus Professor, Kingston University) is a world-leading expert in the Gothic. She has co-edited collection on Murdoch’s work, as well as ‘Living on Paper: Letters from Iris Murdoch’ with Anne Rowe. Her biography of Barbara Comyns is forthcoming. Sarah Perry is the internationally best selling author of the novels Melmoth, The Essex Serpent, and After Me Comes the Flood, and the non-fiction Essex Girls. She is a winner of the Waterstone’s Book of the Year Awards and the British Book Awards, and has been nominated for major literary prizes including the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Folio Prize and the Costa Novel Award. Her essays have been widely published, and she has contributed to the Guardian, the New York Times, the Observer, and the London Review of Books. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has a PhD in Creative Writing, and has been a UNESCO City of Literature Writer in Residence in Prague, and a Writer in Residence at Gladstone’s Library and the Savoy Hotel in London. Her second novel, the No. 1 bestseller The Essex Serpent, is currently being adapted for television, starring Claire Danes in the lead role.

Joining me to discuss Iris' love of Peter Pan, and her use of Barrie's story in her own fiction, are Anne Rowe and Frances White, both from the Research Centre at Chichester. Peter Pan is referenced in nine of her novels, from An Unofficial Rose (1962) through to The Green Knight (1993) although we focus on A Word Child (1975)which the strongest imbued with him. You can find more material in Anne and Cheryl Bove's 'Sacred Space, Beloved City' here: https://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-4438-0066-2

Joining me to discuss Murdoch's childhood reading, and its impact on her fiction, are Jan Skinner (formerly a tutor at Oxford's Continuing Education Department) and Anne Rowe (Chichester/Kingston). The main books discussed are Treasure Island, the Alice Books, and Kipling's Kim. A taster of Jan's essay can be found here: https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9780230348288 and if you'd like the full text please get in touch. Anne's latest book can be purchased from the Society here:https://irismurdochsociety.org.uk/product/iris-murdoch-writers-and-their-work/

Joining me to discuss Murdoch and Religion are Christopher Gowans (Fordham, USA), Scott H. Moore (Baylor, USA) and Frances White (IMRC, Chichester). We cover her life, tensions in her beliefs, her desire for a demythologised Christianity, and her later interest in Buddhism. Chris' website can be found here: http://christophergowans.com Scott's new book, 'How to Burn a Goat: Farming with the Philosophers': https://www.baylorpress.com/9781481311526/how-to-burn-a-goat/ Frances' award-winning biography: https://irismurdochsociety.org.uk/ims-shop/

Joining me for this podcast are two Murdoch fans who consider themselves to be 'common readers' (a term taken from Virginia Woolf).Kent Wennman is an artist, musician, and much more; Liz Dexter is a blogger, proof reader, and author of 'Iris Murdoch and the Common Reader'. We discuss what makes Murdoch appeal to all types of reader, and how she might be relevant to new readers in the Twenty-First Century. Liz's Book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Iris-Murdoch-Common-Reader-Dexter/dp/1974249646

In this podcast I'm joined by Gillian Dooley (Flinders University, Australia) and Elin Svenneby to discuss Murdoch, music and singing. Along the way we cover most of the novels, consider how the philosophy of Plato, Schopenhauer and Weil might be connected to her thoughts about this artform, and discuss natural sounds and silence. Gillian's latest book: https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9783030189662 Elin's Book: https://www.haugenbok.no/iris-murdochs-velvalgte-ord/svenneby-elin/9788274191662

Joining me to discuss William Golding, Doris Lessing and Muriel Spark in relation to their own work (and Iris!) are James Bailey (University of Sheffield), Nicola Presley (University of Bath Spa), and Nonia Williams (University of East Anglia). We cover the novels, of course, but also politics, feminism, WW2, the influence of travel, mysticism and much more! James' new book on Spark: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-muriel-spark-s-early-fiction.html Nonia's recent Edited Collection: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-british-avant-garde-fiction-of-the-1960s.html Nicola's Work: https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/our-people/nicola-presley/ The William Golding Website: https://william-golding.co.uk/

In this episode Miles is (virtually) in the Murdoch collection at the Kingston University Archives; and joined by the Head Archivist, Dayna Miller, transcriber Rachel Hirschler, and one of the founders of the archive, Prof. Anne Rowe (Chichester and Kingston). We cover the letters, journals, links between novels and unpublished work, poetry, artwork, and much more. To ask Dayna a question, or to book a visit, simply email: [email protected] Find the archive here: https://www.kingston.ac.uk/faculties/kingston-school-of-art/research-and-innovation/iris-murdoch/ Back Issues of the Review (for free!) here: https://irismurdochsociety.org.uk/the-review/

In this podcast I'm joined by Prof Peter J. Conradi, Iris Murdoch's official biographer, to celebrate his own memoir, 'Family business', and to reflect on his biography of Iris, 'Iris Murdoch: A Life', twenty years after publication. He tells us about his relationship with Iris, her life, work and relationships, her unpublished novel 'Jerusalem', what he left unsaid until 'Family Business' (the final third of which is dedicated to her) and much more! You can buy 'Family Business' at a discounted price here until the end of February 2020: https://www.serenbooks.com/productdisplay/family-business-memoir using the code 'MURDOCH' at checkout. The article by Leo Robson that Peter refers to can be found here: https://www.newstatesman.com/iris-murdoch-novels-reissued-criticism-biography-100-years

In this lecture Rob Hardy (Emeritus, Henan Normal University, China) explores the consequences of two statements: (1) that Iris Murdoch was a shaman in the sense that Ted Hughes said that Shakespeare and T.S Eliot were, and (2) that Murdoch’s shamanism was deeply linked to the intertextuality of her fiction.

Joining me to discuss Iris Murdoch and feminism are Lucy Bolton, a film scholar from Queen Mary, University of London; Wendy Jones Nakanishi a literary scholar recently retired from Shikoku Gakuin University, Japan; and the artist and scholar Carol Sommer. Lucy's Book on Iris Murdoch and Film-Philosophy: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-contemporary-cinema-and-the-philosophy-of-iris-murdoch.html Carol's Book 'Cartography for Girls': https://www.blurb.co.uk/b/7203743-cartography-for-girls-an-a-z-of-orientations-ident

George Steiner commented in Existentialists and Mystics that Iris Murdoch’s writings present ‘[l]uminous shades of Blake’s “holiness of the minute particular”’. This lecture explores some of the ways in which Murdoch engages with this oft-maligned Romantic visionary, whose works are referenced in her fiction, her letters and her philosophy. Blake and Murdoch share a dialectical moral vision that suggests the necessity for revolutionary violence, seeks an acknowledgement of evil, and invites the individual to attend to the world around them. Dr Daniel Read completed his doctoral studies at Kingston University. This lecture was given at the University of Chichester in February, 2018.

Joining Miles on the podcast are Peter J. Conradi FRSL, author of the authorised biography, 'Iris Murdoch: A Life', as well as his own memoir 'Family Business' (2019); the novelist Garth Greenwell, author of 'What Belongs to You' and 'Cleanness' (2020); and the literary critic and former Deputy Director of PEN, Catherine Taylor. Peter's Memoir: https://www.serenbooks.com/productdisplay/family-business-memoir Garth's New Novel: https://www.waterstones.com/book/cleanness/garth-greenwell/9781509874637 Catherine's Latest work in the Times Literary Supplement: https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/reduced-to-body-parts/

This recording from 2019 features Miles Leeson and Anne Rowe, both from the Iris Murdoch Research Centre at the University of Chichester, discussing Murdoch's novel 'The Unicorn'.

In this episode, Miles is joined by Ian D'Alton (Trinity College, Dublin), Gillian Dooley (Flinders University Australia) and Frances White (IMRC, Chichester) to discuss Iris' Irishness. Areas covered include her biography and links with Irish culture, along with the novels 'The Unicorn', 'The Red and the Green', and her only short story 'Something Special'. Ian's article on her Irishness: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/in-praise-of-iris-murdoch-by-ian-d-alton-1.2235736 Gillian's New work: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030189662 Frances' biography: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Becoming-Iris-Murdoch-Frances-White/dp/1899999604/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=white+iris+murdoch&qid=1602192322&sr=8-2

Joining me to present a general introduction to Murdoch's life and work are Prof. Cheryl Bove (Ball State University, USA), Prof. Avril Horner (Kingston University, UK), and Kieran Setiya (MIT, USA). In this podcast we introduce each facet of Murdoch's life and work - her biography, fiction, philosophy, life writing, her love of London, and more. You can discover more via these links: Avril's Co-edited collection of Murdoch's letters: https://www.psbooks.co.uk/Living-on-Paper-9780701187057 Cheryl's book 'Understanding Iris Murdoch': https://www.bookfinder.com/search/?ac=sl&st=sl&ref=bf_s2_a1_t1_1&qi=cw5b7Q6.xXFowro,ke3OyG,UAjs_1497963026_1:3:9&bq=author%3Dcheryl%2520browning%2520bove%26title%3Dunderstanding%2520iris%2520murdoch Kieran's Website: http://www.ksetiya.net/ with a link to his own '5 Questions' Podcast

Maureen reflects on her time studying with Iris Murdoch (and others) at St Anne's College Oxford in the late 1950s, and reflects on the effect that it had on her later career as an academic. Interviewed by Miles Leeson from the IMRC, Chichester.

In this interview, first broadcast on the BBC in 1977, Murdoch discusses her work in both philosophy and literature with Bryan Magee. An excellent companion piece, by the Murdochian scholar Gillian Dooley, can be found here: https://www.abc.net.au/religion/iris-murdoch-and-her-philosophy-of-fiction/11889672

Joining me to discuss Iris and Swimming are Natasha Alden from the University of Aberystwyth, Hannah Marije from St Mary's University of London, and Lucy Oulton from the research Centre at Chichester. We discuss her life writing, no-fiction, philosophy, and of course her fiction including: Under the Net The Bell The Sea, The Sea The Unicorn A Fairly Honourable Defeat The Philosopher's Pupil

Joining Miles to discuss 'A Word Child' are Professor Rob Hardy from Henan Normal University, China; Dr Daniel read from Kingston University, and Maria Peacock from the Research Centre at Chichester.

Join me and my guest Anne Rowe as she guides us around London's National Gallery! We'll be stopping off at four paintings that appear in her novels: Gainsborough's portrait of his two daughters from 'The Bell' https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/thomas-gainsborough-the-painters-daughters-chasing-a-butterfly Bronzino's 'Allegory with Venus and Cupid' from 'The Nice and the Good'. https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/bronzino-an-allegory-with-venus-and-cupid Giorgione's 'Il Tramonto' from 'The Sacred and Profane Love Machine' https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/giorgione-il-tramonto-the-sunset Titian's 'The Death of Acteon' from 'Henry and Cato' https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/titian-the-death-of-actaeon Anne is the world's leading Murdoch scholar, and her particular interest is Murdoch and the Visual Arts. Her books mentioned in the podcast can be found here: 'Iris Murdoch' https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/books/id/51725/ 'Sacred Space, Beloved City' https://www.cambridgescholars.com/sacred-space-beloved-city-15 Take a virtual tour here: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/visiting/virtual-tours

Joining me to discuss Murdoch and Politics are Gary Browning (Oxford Brookes), author of 'Why Iris Murdoch Matters', Lesley Jamieson (Queen's University, Canada)who is conducting research into Murdoch's thought in the 1950s, and Vic Seidler (Goldsmiths, London) author of numerous works on sociology and politics. Gary's Book: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/why-iris-murdoch-matters-9781472574473/ Lesley's Latest Research: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-9752.12416 Vic's latest book: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/making-sense-of-brexit

Joining Miles in this special podcast on Brigid Brophy's life and work are Gerri Kimber, co-editor of the recent collection 'Brigid Brophy: Avant-Garde Writer, Critic, Activist'; Jonathan Gibbs, academic and novelist (whose latest novel 'The Large Door' is directly inspired by Brophy's 'The Snow Ball'); and Brophy's daughter, Kate Levey. Kate's Website: www.brigidbrophy.com Gerri's co-edited collection: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-brigid-brophy.html Jonathan's Novel: https://www.boilerhouse.press/product-page/the-large-door You can also listen to a 'Backlisted' Podcast on 'The Snow Ball' (featuring Jonathan) here: https://www.backlisted.fm/episodes/33-brigid-brophy-the-snow-ball

In 2016 Frances White (who you can also hear on the recent podcast) joined me at Chichester to discuss 'The Bell' with my students.

My guests on this podcast are Dr Frances White, Deputy Director of the IMRC at Chichester and author of the short biography 'Becoming Iris Murdoch', Fr Mark Patrick Hederman Former Abbott of Glenstall Abbey in Ireland and author of two works with a focus on Murdoch (see below), and James Marriott, Deputy Books Editor of The Times. Frances Book: https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Becoming_Iris_Murdoch.html?id=9APuoQEACAAJ&redir_esc=y Mark Patrick's Books: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Haunted-Inkwell-Art-Our-Future/dp/1856073475 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Opal-Pearl-Towards-Gyroscopic-Ethics/dp/178218306X/ref=sr_1_12?dchild=1&qid=1592437559&refinements=p_27%3AMark+Patrick+Hederman&s=books&sr=1-12&text=Mark+Patrick+Hederman James' Webpage at The Times: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/profile/james-marriott?page=1

In this episode Miles is joined by Lucy Bolton (Queen Mary, University of London), Rebecca Moden (University of Chichester), and Anne Rowe (Chichester, and Kingston University) to discuss how Murdoch's use of imagery works in the novels, her inspirations, her relationship with painters and paintings, and how her philosophy can be brought to bear on the cinema and film-philosophy. Lucy's Book: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-contemporary-cinema-and-the-philosophy-of-iris-murdoch.html Link to Vogue Article: https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/vogue-archive-article-iris-murdoch Anne's Book: https://mellenpress.com/book/Visual-Arts-and-the-Novels-of-Iris-Murdoch/4673/ Special Edition of the Iris Murdoch Review No. 8 on the Visual Arts (edited by Lucy, work by Anne and Rebecca)freely available here: https://www.chi.ac.uk/humanities/public-humanities/literary-and-cultural-narrative/iris-murdoch-research-centre/iris-murdoch-review Links to images mentioned: Phillip's Portrait of Iris: https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw07718/Iris-Murdoch Bronzino: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/bronzino-an-allegory-with-venus-and-cupid Gainsborough: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/thomas-gainsborough-the-painters-daughters-chasing-a-butterfly Rublev: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_(Andrei_Rublev)

In 2017 A.N. Wilson was a guest at the Iris Murdoch Conference at Chichester. Here he is, in interview with Miles Leeson, reflecting on 'Iris Murdoch: As I Knew Her' 15 years after publication. If you want the full interview with audience questions and responses you can find it in this book. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Iris-Murdoch-Celebration-Miles-Leeson/dp/191297200X If you'd like a copy at a discount please email: [email protected] Andrew's book is here: https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/books/a-n-wilson/iris-murdoch-biography/GOR004674835

In this podcast Miles Leeson is joined by three renowned experts on Murdoch's philosophy; Justin Broackes (Brown University, USA), editor of 'Iris Murdoch, Philosopher' and author of a forthcoming commentary on SOG; Hannah Marije Altorf (St. Mary's, London) author of 'Iris Murdoch and the Art of Imagining' and translator of the Dutch edition of SOG, and Mark Hopwood (Sewanee, University of the South, USA), editor of the forthcoming'The Murdochian Mind'. You can find 'Existentialists and Mystics' here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0140264922/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tu00_p1_i6 Justin's Collection: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/iris-murdoch-philosopher-9780198701200?lang=en&cc=gb Hannah's Book: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/iris-murdoch-and-the-art-of-imagining-9780826497574/ Mark's Work: https://www.sewanee.edu/academics/philosophy/facstaff/hopwood.php

This podcast discusses 'Murdochland' - the locations, characters, and buildings that inhabit Murdoch's novels: London is central. Guests are Chris Boddington, author of 'Iris Murdoch A-Z' - a major reference work to all her characters, locations, and so much more ; James Jefferies, creator of irismurdoch.info - an online site dedicated to Murdoch's London, and Prof Anne Rowe co-author of 'Sacred Space, Beloved City: Iris Murdoch's London' and many other works on Murdoch. Anne's Book: www.cambridgescholars.com/sacred-space-beloved-city-15 Chris' Book here: https://murdochspeople.com/ James Website: https://irismurdoch.info

A talk at the Iris Murdoch Research Centre on the 20th anniversary of her death in 2019.

The first podcast from the Iris Murdoch Research Centre at the University of Chichester hosted by the Director, Miles Leeson. Guests include Visiting Professor Anne Rowe, Visiting Fellow Frances White, and researcher Lucy Oulton.