David Morgan (5) (1940–)

29 Mar 2010 - came as part of my membership of the Iris Murdoch Society

I took this to the Conference with me as I hadn't managed to read it beforehand, but didn't get the time to read much of it. David Morgan was supposed to be giving a session at the Conference but he was indisposed, but Anne Rowe from the Centre for Iris Murdoch Studies and Nick Turner gave a marvellous reading from the letters and the book, after Anne had introduced a book she had seen through to publication.

I approached show more the book with a little trepidation. As we all know, Iris Murdoch is one of my heroines, and while I'd enjoyed seeing her youthful self in the Writer at War volume, and cried over her decline in Bayley's books, I wasn't sure how much I'd mind her having her feet of clay displayed. However, I needn't have worried - she comes across as very human and alive, a bit scary, well-meaning and truly attempting to help people, inquisitive to the point of voyeurism, but never, I am sure, overstepping the mark between tutor and pupil. The book itself, which grew out of an attempt by Morgan, who knew IM when she taught at the Royal College of Arts, to write a letter to her biographer and friend, Peter Conradi, is a rather sprawling and disconnected piece, consisting of impressions, notes, jottings and explanations. But it's very vivid and I think throws much illumination onto IM as a person, especially in her "London" persona, which was quite separate from her "Oxford" one. Of course we are reminded of various scenes and characters from the novels, although Morgan is quick to point out he is not the direct model for any characters in the books.

Overall, we are left with a lively and vivid portrait of a lively and vivid woman, as well as of the conflicted art student Morgan had become. Evocative and fascinating, and did not destroy my love of IM In the slightest. show less

"With 'Love' and 'Rage'" would be more accurate as a title.

David Morgan enjoyed a briefly intense, somewhat boozy friendship with Iris Murdoch in the Bohemian world of London in the 1960s. She was twenty years older, and a well-published novelist, so there was already considerable inequality from the start. He was a struggling student at the Royal College of Art, and Murdoch provided the younger man with guidance, advice about his messy romantic life, and the occasional loan. Now, a decade show more after her death, Morgan has written a rambling, poorly organized, repetitive (but short) account of their platonic relationship. Between the lines, "With Love and Rage" seems infused with a mildly bitter regret that Murdoch didn't allow him to become a larger part of her life. show less