The husband of novelist Dame Iris Murdoch left £4.5 million in his will – including a £5,000 legacy to the dementia care home where she died.
Oxford professor John Bayley was best known for detailing his wife’s mental decline from Alzheimer’s disease in the first volume of his trilogy of memoirs, published before her death in 1999.
His book Iris: A Memoir became a surprise bestseller in 1998 and was turned into a film, Iris, by Richard Eyre in 2001.
Oxford professor John Bayley (pictured with Dame Iris Murdoch) was best known for detailing his wife’s mental decline from Alzheimer’s disease in the first volume of his trilogy of memoirs, published in 1999
The movie starred Hugh Bonneville and Kate Winslet as the couple in their younger years.
The older Murdoch and Bayley were played by Dame Judi Dench and Jim Broadbent, who won an Oscar in 2002 for his performance.
Bayley left the bulk of his £4,515,265 estate to his second wife Audi. He left £5,000 to Vale House, the Oxford care home where Dame Iris spent the last three weeks of her life.
After Iris: A Memoir, Bayley went on to write two more books as part of a three-part series devoted to his wife. They had been married for 43 years.
The final of the trilogy, Widower’s House, published in 2011, depicted life after his wife’s death.
Poignant: Bayler's best-selling book Iris: A Memoir (left) became a surprise bestseller in 1998 and was turned into a film, Iris, by Richard Eyre in 2001. The couple are pictured together right
Dame Iris is widely regarded as one of Britain’s finest authors and wrote a total of 26 books during her lifetime.
Her husband was educated at Eton and became a Warton Professor of English at Oxford University.
He was later awarded a CBE in 1999.
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