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