Ms Ursula Bentley
- Sheffield, England
Biography
Ursula Bentley was born in Sheffield on 18 September 1945. Her mother died a few hours after giving birth and she was raised by her grandparents in Surrey, along with her brothers Chris, who died as a young adult, and Paul, who became an actor and writer. The three children were very close and enjoyed a mutual love of literature and music – their relationship has sometimes been likened to that of the Brontës.
After a Roman Catholic education, Bentley began training as a nurse before transferring to Manchester University to study English literature. She had harboured early hopes of an acting career, but was discouraged by her father. In 1969 she married geologist Alan Thompson, whose career took them firstly to Harvard University and later to Zurich, Switzerland. Marriage and motherhood prevented Bentley from pursuing her own academic ambitions – she was passionately interested in medieval literature and history, and this was to influence her later fiction.
It was while living in Zurich that Bentley published her first, and most successful, novel, The Natural Order (1982). This black satirical comedy about three friends from the south of England who all move north to work at a Catholic boys’ school in Manchester was highly acclaimed and led to Bentley’s inclusion in Granta magazine’s ‘Best of Young British Novelists’ list in 1983. A second novel, Private Accounts, about an American living in Switzerland, followed in 1986 – it was critically acclaimed but not commercially successful. After a long absence, Bentley published two more novels which, though less successful, continue to display her talent for sharp humour and social observation: The Angel of Twickenham (1996), a tale of a middle-aged mother trying to resurrect her acting career, hints at Bentley’s own thwarted theatrical ambitions, while The Sloping Experience (1999), the story of an incestuous brother and sister investigating their father’s past, incorporates medieval themes.
Ursula Bentley died of cancer on 7 April 2004, at the age of 58.
Critical perspective
In 1982 Ursula Bentley published her first novel, The Natural Order, to instant acclaim and success: ‘… she woke up to find herself a publishing sensation, cited as the new Beryl Bainbridge’ (Guardian obituary, Frances Donnelly, 26 April 2004). However, while many of her contemporaries on Granta’s 1983 ‘Best of Young British Novelists’ list – Ian McEwan, Martin Amis, Julian Barnes, Pat Barker, Salman Rushdie, William Boyd – went on to enjoy spectacular and long-lasting literary careers, Bentley never repeated the success of her first novel and quickly disappeared into literary obscurity.
The publication of her second novel, Private Accounts (1986), was followed by a period of personal difficulties. While living in Zurich with her husband and children, Bentley suffered serious gynaecological problems, followed by depression, divorce and a return to England to begin the difficult path of single-motherhood. A decade later she returned to the literary world – which had long since forgotten her – but her third and fourth novels, The Angel of Twickenham (1996) and The Sloping Experience (1999), did not make a significant impact. Bentley was working on another book when her life was tragically cut short in 2004 – thus we can only speculate as to whether she might have resumed her stride and repeated her earlier success had she been given more time.
Frances Donnelly, a childhood friend who wrote Bentley’s obituary in the Guardian, comments that Bentley had ‘a steely intelligence and a certain satiric awareness’ from a young age (Guardian, 26 April 2004). It is therefore unsurprising that when she began writing fiction Bentley’s work was infused with satire, black humour, shrewdness and sharp social insight. These qualities are at their best in The Natural Order, a tale of three women friends from south-west London who all end up heading north and working in a rather grim Catholic boys’ school in Manchester. There they experience various exploits and adventures – including all three falling for the seductive charms of the same man – and Bentley offers an astute yet affectionate portrait of human absurdities and eccentricities.
Upon its publication, The Natural Order was acclaimed for the way in which it combines grim portrayals of real life with multi-faceted characters, satirical wit and unabashed sexual candour: the Sunday Telegraph review celebrated the novel as ‘Vivaciously misanthropic, cheerfully lascivious’, while the Guardian review applauded it as ‘Wickedly amusing, the best bitter-sweet comedian since Beryl Bainbridge’ (cited in the Guardian, ‘The one that got away’, Matt Seaton, 2 January 2003). In a more recent overview of Bentley’s career, Matt Seaton reflects on this (much neglected) novel’s place in English literature:
In its tendency to provoke laughter at the charming eccentricity of its dysfunctional characters, the novel reveals a very English sense of humour, while its arch wit has an old-fashioned flavour. This satirical edge, and the school scenario, suggest a certain kinship with Evelyn Waugh’s Decline and Fall.
(Guardian, 2 January 2003)
Private Accounts was also applauded by critics, though it did not make the same impact as The Natural Order and did not sell particularly well. The protagonist is B.J. DeWitt Berkeley, an American saleswoman who lives in Switzerland with her husband. B.J. is a colourful character with a voracious sexual appetite who shocks the Swiss with her outspoken and unrestrained manner. Bentley’s flair for biting humour and social observation creates an amusing satire of Swiss culture, though the character of B.J. is less compelling than the three women who feature in The Natural Order.
The Angel of Twickenham was published to mixed reviews, while The Sloping Experience was largely ignored by critics. The Angel of Twickenham features Harriet, a middle-aged and middle-class woman whose acting career was curtailed by motherhood. When Dotty, her husband's recently widowed cousin, moves in with Harriet and her busy family, Dotty takes on some of the maternal and domestic responsibilities, leaving Harriet free to pursue new acting roles - rather farcically, she ends up performing in a musical based on the First World War.
The Angel of Twickenham, as Andrew Morrod comments, is 'laced with a wicked humour that captures brilliantly the darker side of every family' (Daily Mail, 29 August 1997). However, its structure is rather chaotic and the characters are not particularly complex: Carol Rumens' review comments that The Angel of Twickenham lacks detail and insight with respect to the characters' inner lives, and thus may fail to move the reader. Nonetheless, Rumens also notes the novel's strong points: Harriet 'is a strong creation', and, although 'there is far too much of it, the family dialogue is lively, revealing a good ear for teenage argot' (Observer, 2 March 1997).
The Sloping Experience is another black comedy, but it differs from its predecessors, combining the tale of an incestuous brother and sister with mystery and medievalism. Inspired by a period of time Bentley spent living in the grounds of a ruined castle, the novel features Arden and Tim who live in their late father's cottage in Suffolk, close to Sloping Castle. As they try to save the castle from being converted into a medieval theme park, Arden and Tim begin to uncover their father's rather murky and mysterious past. The Sloping Experience is abundant with dark and inventive humour but, like The Angel of Twickenham, it suffers from an untidy structure: as Susan Jeffreys comments, the novel has a 'wham-bang start' and a lot of potential, but ultimately 'Some heavy editing and a thorough rewrite could have done wonders here' (Independent, 20 February 1999).
Though Bentley's later novels are clearly less sophisticated than the first two, some authors and publishers believe that her later decline was also due in part to her lack of drive: 'Bentley was surprised by her early success and, when she settled again in England with her children, too modest to claim the attention that her talent should have ensured' (Marguerite Alexander, Independent obituary, 14 April 2004). Bentley herself commented in an interview a year before she died: 'I've never been part of the literary scene, and I wouldn't want to be. It's probably in my upbringing - to be a stranger in my own home' (Matt Seaton, Guardian, 2 January 2003).
Elizabeth O'Reilly
