[2] Diagnosed with cancer of the colon in 2008, and subsequently forced to give up her psychotherapy work because of the illness, she reinvigorated her literary career by writing three novels, of which Unexpected Lessons In Love was the first.
Her mother, Barbara Wall, a novelist and translator, and her father, Bernard, who wrote on Italian and Spanish history and culture, were leading Catholic thinkers of the day, entertaining a stream of literati including Rene Hague, Gavin Maxwell and Dylan Thomas at their Ladbroke Road home.
[2] She spent her formative years, during World War II, with her grandmother Madeline at Greatham, West Sussex, and was reunited with her parents in London following the cessation of hostilities.
Bishop was educated at the Convent of Our Lady of Sion, Bayswater, west London, and Newnham College, Cambridge, where her lecturers in English included CS Lewis, EM Forster and FR Leavis.
[2] Presented as a fresh-faced convent girl, Bishop was asked by defence counsel, Gerald Gardner QC, if she was already familiar with the four-letter words in the book.
She assured him that she had known all those terms before reading it, and went on to tell the court that the expurgated version had very little literary merit, "because it is not the book Lawrence wrote… treating that very important human relationship with great dignity.
[3] She said of her time in the education profession that her greatest achievement had been to instil in the pupils, drawn from working class areas of north London, a love of Shakespeare.
[3] Unexpected Lessons In Love was published in 2013, with the encouragement of Margaret Drabble, who described it as "one of the most enjoyable books I’ve read in years" because it confronted "one of the last taboos of modern life" with a lightness of touch.
"During my treatment for cancer, the endless hospital appointments, the chemo and radiotherapy sessions, the agony of waiting for results, of sitting in front of doctors who knew more than I did about my future, I ceded authority to others.
[7] It was shortlisted in the Best Novel category of the Costa Book Awards, and described by the judges as an "unflinching, darkly funny story of love, obsession and illness that is unexpected in every way".
[8] "Witty, original and empathetic, the novel explores many forms of love, particularly the maternal bond," wrote Pamela Norris in the Literary Review, "but what gripped readers was Bishop’s candid discussion of physical issues, from the pros and cons of the opaque colostomy bag to the perplexities of sex after surgery.
"[9] The book’s handling of contentious issues – one narrative thread concerns a predatory paedophile priest, and a mother’s attempts to learn more about his role in her son’s death – impressed critics.