Writer Charles Lambert recounts the night he met the award-winning author – and never forgot her frank adviceI’d just been dumped by my book agent in 2004 and was feeling rather gloomy,so I decided to enter my novel into the Lichfield first book prize, and got shortlisted. Beryl Bainbridge was a founder and one of the judges. I spent a few days before the prize ceremony swotting up on her work.
I turned up with my parents and sister and was introduced to Beryl along with the others shortlisted. She was the sort of person you really noticed in a room full of people: she was in her late 60s, or very petite and elegant and a bit ravaged,with a glass of wine in one hand and a cigarette in the other. I remember my mother saying that Beryl was wearing a very expensive black cocktail dress.
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Source: theguardian.com