Professor Anne Rowe (University of Chichester) will explore the literary and theological links between the novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch and the medieval mystic Julian of Norwich.

Much of our conception of the relationship between Iris Murdoch and John Bayley, happily married for over forty years, comes from Bayley's memoirs, and the Oscar-winning film adaptation of the first, Iris (2001). But what do we know of their life together outside of their public appearances and international travel?