1919- . British novelist, born in Dublin. Her
novels combine philosophical speculation with
often outrageous situations and tangled human
relationships. They include The Sandcastle
1957, The Sea, The Sea 1978, and The Message
to the Planet 1989. A lecturer in philosophy,
she became in 1948 a fellow of St Anne's
College, Oxford University, and published
Sartre, Romantic Rationalist 1953. Her novel
A Severed Head 1961 was filmed 1983.