Iris Murdoch was born in Dublin in 1919. She read Classics at Somerville College, Oxford, and after working in the Treasury and abroad, was awarded a research studentship in Philosophy at Newnham College, Cambridge. In 1948 she returned to Oxford as fellow and tutor at St Anne's College and later taught at the Royal College of Art. Until her death in 1999, she lived in Oxford with her husband, the academic and critic, John Bayley. She was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1987 and in the 1997 PEN Awards received the Gold Pen for Distinguished Service to Literature.

"Under the Net announces the emergence of a brilliant talent " Times Literary Supplement "Of all the novelists that have made their bow since the war she seems to me to be the most remarkable-behind her books one feels a power of intellect quite exceptional in a novelist" Sunday Times "A dazzling story, light and comic in touch" The Times "Iris Murdoch has imposed her alternative world on us as surely as Christopher Columbus or Graham Greene" Sunday Times "This is a comedy with that touch of ferocity about it which makes for excitement" -- Elizabeth Jane Howard