John Bayley | Critic and 'Iris' author, 89

John Bayley, 89, whose best-selling

Elegy for Iris

about his wife, the writer Iris Murdoch, earned him his broadest audience and inspired the 2001 movie

Iris,

died Jan. 12 of heart problems at his home in the Canary Islands.

He was an eminent critic and Oxford don, known to stuff his pockets with leftovers. She was a brilliant novelist and skinny-dipping libertine, whose philosophical treatments of love and freedom brought her the Booker Prize in 1978 for The Sea, The Sea.

In their more than 40 years together, they shared a private language of endearments and lived in tranquil squalor in a country house overrun with books, mail, and piled-up clothes.

When Murdoch began to "sail into the dark" of Alzheimer's disease, Mr. Bayley fed, dressed, and cleaned her. He refrained from tidying up her image, writing an unflinching portrait of his wife in decline that moved critics but outraged friends.

The historian Gertrude Himmelfarb, writing in Commentary magazine, denounced the book as a form of "spousal abuse."

The author made no apologies.

"I thought that if I could write something about her that was interesting, more people would want to read her books, which are so good," he said. "And while I was writing, the real Iris came back to me, which gave me great pleasure."

Jim Broadbent won an Oscar for best supporting actor for his portrayal of Mr. Bayley in the film Iris. - L.A. Times