Bernardine Bishop

Bernardine Anna Livia Mary Bishop (née Wall; 16 August 1939 – 4 July 2013) was an English novelist, teacher and psychotherapist. Her first novel, Perspectives, was published by Hutchinson in 1961. During a half-century break between publishing her first two novels and her third, the 2013 Costa prize-nominated Unexpected Lessons In Love, she brought up a family, taught, and practised as a psychotherapist.

Diagnosed with cancer of the colon in 2008, and subsequently forced to give up her psychotherapy work because of the illness, she reinvigorated her literary career by writing three novels, of which Unexpected Lessons In Love was the first. The book had only just been published when, having been informed that her condition was terminal, she decided to withdraw from chemotherapy and "turn her face towards Jerusalem". She died the following July.

Life and career

Background and presence at the Lady Chatterley Trial

Bishop was born in London, England to a literary family. Her mother, Barbara Wall, a novelist and translator, and her father, Bernard, who wrote on Italian and Spanish history and culture, were leading Catholic thinkers of the day, entertaining a stream of literati including Rene Hague, Gavin Maxwell and Dylan Thomas at their Ladbroke Road home.

Bishop later said in an interview with The Oldie magazine, "It was a simple syllogism for me. Good writers should not be censored; Lawrence was a good writer; Lawrence should not be censored." alongside Anthony Burgess and John Betjeman, but personal circumstances would militate against her expanding her literary canon. Following the end of her marriage she took a job as an English teacher, first in Westbourne Park and then in Holloway, to support herself and her two young sons, Matthew (Matt Bishop, now a director of the Aston Martin Formula 1 team) and Francis (Francis 'Foff' Bishop, a West Sussex fireman).

Diagnosis with cancer of the colon and return to writing

Ill health, following her diagnosis with cancer of the colon in 2008, ultimately forced her to retire from her work as a therapist but led to a reflowering of her literary career. Believing herself to be in remission, she took up the pen and wrote three further novels before her condition returned and was pronounced terminal in 2012, ending, in her words, a period of "happy uncertainty" in her life. It was shortlisted in the Best Novel category of the Costa Book Awards, and described by the judges as an "unflinching, darkly funny story of love, obsession and illness that is unexpected in every way".

"Witty, original and empathetic, the novel explores many forms of love, particularly the maternal bond," wrote Pamela Norris in the Literary Review, "but what gripped readers was Bishop’s candid discussion of physical issues, from the pros and cons of the opaque colostomy bag to the perplexities of sex after surgery."

Her final two novels would be published posthumously, Hidden Knowledge in 2014 and The Street in 2015. While Unexpected Lessons In Love was praised for its deft and often humorous handling of difficult subject matter, Hidden Knowledge is a darker work. In it Bishop sets up a number of seemingly parallel narratives in order to explore, in her words, "The things people do not know about themselves, the things they cannot face." "The themes Bishop deals with are so complex and nuanced it is unsurprising that she spends so much time describing her characters' state of mind. If there is an occasional sense that characters are more talked about than talking, this is still an extraordinarily brave and powerful novel, and one that pins down the darker aspects of human experience with a precision beyond most writers."

"Like Hardy and Shakespeare, Bishop relishes coincidence and the unexpected quirks of fate," wrote Norris in the Literary Review. "This gives the novel a welcome lightness and sense of irony, despite its tragic undertones." "Like her novel Unexpected Lessons in Love, it is filled with life and optimism and a wicked sense of comedy. Characters find each other in ways that seem random, until it all falls into place at the deeply satisfying ending."

Final months

After completing what would be her final novel, The Street, Bishop was informed that her condition was terminal. "All the energy went out of me at that point and I felt dreadfully poor and sad and I haven’t written since," she said in a March 2013 interview. "I would have liked to have had a few more years. I would have liked a couple more novels."

Having elected to give up chemotherapy and "turn her face towards Jerusalem", she spent her final months reconnecting with old friends and acquaintances, thereby avoiding the need for a final stint in hospital or hospice, and reconciling herself with her fate. Bishop’s mother had lived to be 97, and her end was "not a pleasure. A lively-minded, still active woman became deaf as a post and simply could not participate. Well, I shall escape all that."

Novels

Perspectives (1961) Playing House (1963) Unexpected Lessons In Love (2013) Hidden Knowledge (2014, posthumous) The Street (2015, posthumous)