DAME Iris Murdoch, author of 26 novels and one of Britain's most intellectually brilliant writers, is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, her husband confirmed yesterday.
Dame Iris was born in Dublin in July 1919, but educated in England.
The public announcement through an interview with Britain's Daily Telegraph, followed months of rumours about the apparent writer's block she has suffered.
"Iris has Alzheimer's. There is no doubt about it," her husband of 41 years, Dr John Bayley, told the newspaper.
"It is rather like falling from stair to stair in a series of bumps, though it seems to be happening relatively slowly."
Six months ago, Dame Iris had described her so-called writing block as being in a "hard dark place" from which she was trying to get out. But she told the Daily
Telegraph:"I'm afraid I am waiting in vain ... perhaps I had better find some other kind of job."
Dame Iris, whose most recent novel Jackson's Dilemma was published in 1995, is one of only two writers to have won both of Britain's major literary awards, the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Prize.
Her novels are heavily symbolic with complex plots built on what she once called "erotic mysteries and deep dark struggles between good and evil".
Her first novel in 1953, Under the Net, was praised for its perceptiveness and blend of fantasy and humour. In 1961 she had an over-night success with her novel, A Severed Head. The widely-acclaimed The Sea, The Sea won the prestigious Booker Prize in 1978.
Her other novels include The Red and the Green, The Sacred and Profane Love Machine (Whitbread Prize winner in 1974), and The Book and the Brotherhood.
She also taught philosophy at Oxford and wrote several books on the subject. In 1987 she was made a Dame of the Order of the British Empire.
Dr John Hodges, who has been treating Dame Iris for the disorder, said that she had managed to cover up the degenerative brain disease for some time under cover of social graces and her high intellect.
"But as soon as you scratch the surface she is profoundly amnesic. One of the tragedies is that she has forgotten so much about her own life and cannot tell you the names of any of the books she has written. She has a striking language problem," Dr Hodges said.
Dr Bayley said he first noticed Dame Iris was losing her memory about two years ago when she went on a trip to London but returned home just hours later. "She had completely forgotten where she was going," he said.
He said he had decided to go public to highlight a condition which few people discuss. "I think we must be open about it."
"It is easy to care for someone when you know them so well," he told the Telegraph. "It is a great sadness, of course, but I can manage. . The most difficult thing is not being able to have the long, interchangeable conversations. Although I was not Iris's intellectual equal, I liked talking about long, complicated matters."
Dr Bayley, who is caring for his wife at their home in Oxford, says Dame Iris does not seem depressed. "She usually appears mildly amused," he said.