An Unofficial Rose (Vintage Classics)

After his wife's death, Hugh contemplates returning to his former mistress. His son, Randall, longs to abandon his shapeless marriage for a perfect partner. Randall's young daughter, Miranda, is adored by her Australian cousin Penn, but has attachments elsewhere.

IRIS MURDOCH was born in Dublin in 1919 of Anglo-Irish parents. Until her death in February 1999, she lived with her husband, the teacher and critic John Bayley, in Oxford. Awarded the CBE in 1976, Iris Murdoch was made a DBE in the 1987 New Year's Honours List. In the 1997 PEN Awards she received the Gold Pen for Distinguished Service to Literature. Since her writing debut in 1954 with Under the Net, Iris Murdoch has written twenty-six novels, including the Booker Prize-winning The Sea, The Sea and most recently The Green Knight and Jackson's Dilemma. Other literary awards include the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for The Black Prince and the Whitbread Prize for The Sacred and Profane Love Machine. Her works of philosophy include Satire: Romantic Rationalist, Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals and Existentialists and Mystics.