Sunday, March 16, 2014

Iris Murdoch and friends

Found - a photo of a crowd of writers and intellectuals. The novelist Iris Murdoch is recognisable, with her husband John Bayley to her left and the man in suit and tie second last to the right is possibly Isaiah Berlin (without his usual heavy specs) described in an obituary 'as the most prominent thinker of his generation.' Probably from the early to mid 1970s and possibly taken in the garden of Iris's house Cedar Lodge at Steeple Aston near Oxford. Oxford may well have provided most of the guests, some of whom look vaguely familiar. Identifications welcome.

3 comments:

  1. I'm out of my league here, I'm sure. But the man second from far right looks like John M. Keynes........

    ReplyDelete
  2. Many thanks Anon I see the resemblance but even if you date this in the mid 1960s Keynes had been long dead (1883-1946). I'm sticking with Isaiah Berlin - the Indian man at the centre is also a puzzle, could it be Krishnamurthi?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh well, I was only off by 30 years.......

    I took a second look at the photo. Cups and saucers, and what a magnificent table! "Intellectuals" out in the sunshine..........tell me again why the 21st century is so great?

    And darn you, Jot101. I've yet to read up on the Algonquin Club, and now you've forced me to add the Bloomsbury Group to my list of wanted books.

    ReplyDelete