The writer Paul Bailey, who has died aged 87, believed in ignoring surfaces or trying to see past them – to identify what was special about the ordinary and overlooked, and what was recognisable and understandable in the unfamiliar. His first career was in acting, and he always aimed to escape narrow egoism. Like the hero of his wonderfully entertaining novel Peter Smart’s Confessions (1977), Bailey “hated self-display” and was a “keen observer of it in others”.
His lifelong suspicion of preciousness was reflected in the priorities and approach of his work as novelist, critic and broadcaster. Reviewing his weekly Radio 3 conversations with writers (1988-92), the Daily Telegraph described him as a “perfect interviewer”.’
