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Imagine a huge cast of characters with complicated romantic lives,

striving to be good while falling madly in and out of love with all the wrong people and fantasising about escape.

No, not Love Island, but the classic

hallmarks of the novels of Iris Murdoch, who was born 100 years ago this week.

But those tropes are only the surface. Over the course of a staggering, 26 hugely fun and

deeply serious novels, including the Booker winner, The Sea, the Sea, as well as

the Bell under the net and the Black Prince, Murdoch wrote about art, philosophy, and morality,

with the page-turning skill of a thriller writer. So in this special episode of Open Book,

celebrating her centenary, we're diving headfirst into the world

of her novels. Joining me in the studio are Peter J. Conradi, long-time friend and official

Murdoch biographer, whose memoir with more on Murdoch family business is just out. Charlotte

Mendelssohn, booker-nominated novelist and Murdoch's superfan, Anne Roe, who set up the Iris Murdoch

Research Centre at Kingston University and Gary Browning, author of Why Iris Murdoch matters, a new book

on Murdoch's philosophy. Welcome to all of you. I thought we could start by just sort of laying our cards

...