The Red Hat

by John Bayley

Bayley's characters are distinctly subtle, constructed from qualifications and convolutions, and propelled by the rapidity of their thoughts.R--Times Literary Supplement

192 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1998

About the author

Professor John Bayley CBE, FBA, FRSL was a British literary critic and writer.

Bayley was born in Lahore, British India, and educated at Eton, where he studied under G. W. Lyttelton, who also taught Aldous Huxley, J.B.S. Haldane, George Orwell and Cyril Connolly. After leaving Eton, he went on to take a degree at New College, Oxford. From 1974 to 1992, Bayley was Warton Professor of English at Oxford. He is also a novelist and writes literary criticism for several newspapers. He edited Henry James' The Wings of the Dove and a two-volume selection of James' short stories.

From 1956 until her death in 1999, he was married to the writer Dame Iris Murdoch. When she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, he wrote the book Iris: A Memoir of Iris Murdoch, which was made into the 2001 film Iris by Richard Eyre. In this film, Bayley was portrayed in his early years by Hugh Bonneville, and in his later years by Jim Broadbent, who won an Oscar for the performance. After Murdoch's death he married Audi Villers, a family friend. He was awarded the CBE in 1999.

Reviews

[Corey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I went into this thinking, since he was married to the supernal Dame Murdoch, that The Red Hat would be Murdochian, in some sense. And I almost quit reading after 100 pages (which is halfway through) because the book seemed full of unrealistic incident and feeling. Little did I know what Bayley was up to. The story ends up being more Paul Auster, or perhaps Graham Greene, than Iris Murdoch. It is sly and mysterious and pitch-perfect. Highly recommended.

[Marj · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is in two parts. Part one: three friends Chloe, Charles and Nancy are in Holland touring art exhibits. Nancy hooks up with a mysterious policeman. After going back home, she returns to try to find him. Part two: Nancy writes to Chloe saying "don't forget me". Chloe sends a friend to try and find her. Crazy story.

[Yousseif Abdellatif · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not gonna lie, I side-eyed The Red Hat for the first hundred pages because everybody and their mom was raving about it. Then John Bayley pulled the rug out and I got it. Hype can be annoying, but this one earns most of it. Read it if you trust your own taste, skip it if you hate being late to the party.

[Yousseif Abdellatif · Rating 3 out of 5]

Straight up, The Red Hat is angrier than I expected, and I kind of respect it. Bayley, John doesn't soften anything, even when a little nuance would've helped the argument. It's raw and it's loud. Read it if you like a book with a chip on its shoulder, skip it if you're in the mood for something gentle.