21 Facts About Beryl Bainbridge

Dame Beryl Margaret Bainbridge was an English writer.

Beryl Bainbridge was primarily known for her works of psychological fiction, often macabre tales set among the English working class.

Beryl Bainbridge won the Whitbread Awards prize for best novel in 1977 and 1996, and was nominated five times for the Booker Prize.

Beryl Bainbridge was described in 2007 as a national treasure.

Beryl Margaret Bainbridge was born in Liverpool's Allerton suburb on 21 November 1932, the daughter of Winifred Baines and Richard Bainbridge.

Beryl Bainbridge grew up in the nearby town of Formby.

Beryl Bainbridge enjoyed writing, and by the age of 10 she was keeping a diary.

Beryl Bainbridge had elocution lessons and, when she was 11, appeared on the Northern Children's Hour radio show, alongside Billie Whitelaw and Judith Chalmers.

Beryl Bainbridge was expelled from Merchant Taylors' Girls' School in Great Crosby when she was caught with a "dirty rhyme" written by someone else in her gymslip pocket.

Beryl Bainbridge then went on to study at Cone-Ripman School in Tring, where she found she was good at history, English, and art.

Beryl Bainbridge spent her early years working as an actress, and she appeared in one 1961 episode of the soap opera Coronation Street playing an anti-nuclear protester.

Beryl Bainbridge wrote and published seven more novels during the 1970s, of which the fifth, Injury Time, was awarded the Whitbread prize for best novel in 1977.

Beryl Bainbridge's final novel, According to Queeney, is a fictionalized account of the last years of the life of Samuel Johnson as seen through the eyes of Queeney Thrale, eldest daughter of Henry and Hester Thrale.

In 2009, Beryl Bainbridge donated the short story Goodnight Children, Everywhere to Oxfam's Ox-Tales project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors.

Beryl Bainbridge was still working on The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress at the time of her death.

The novel, which was based on a real-life journey Beryl Bainbridge made across America in 1968, is about the mystery girl reputed to have been involved in the assassination of Robert Kennedy.

Beryl Bainbridge had been a heavy smoker for much of her life.

Beryl Bainbridge's cancer returned and she died on 2 July 2010, aged 77, in a London hospital.

In 2000, Beryl Bainbridge was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

In 2011, Beryl Bainbridge was posthumously awarded a special honour by the Booker Prize committee.

Mark Knopfler included a song titled "Beryl Bainbridge" dedicated to her and her posthumous award on his 2015 album Tracker.