Brigid Brophy (1929-1995) was a prize-winning British novelist, critic, and political campaigner, championing causes as diverse as gay rights, pacifism, vegetarianism, and aetheism. A provocative public intellectual in the 1960s, she was a celebrated literary name and byword for controversy. Openly bisexual, she was sent down from Oxford for 'excessive carousing' before marrying Michael Levey, Director of the National Gallery, in 1954. Brophy published her acclaimed debut, Hackenfeller's Ape, in 1953, followed by multiple novels including The King of a Rainy Country, Flesh, The Finishing Touch, The Snow Ball, and In Transit, as well as critical studies of Mozart, Aubrey Beardsley, and Ronald Firbank, among others. Eley Williams lectures at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her short story collection Attrib. and Other Stories won the James Tait Black Prize and the Republic of Consciousness Prize and was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. Her debut novel, The Liar's Dictionary, was published in July 2020.