whole cohort of young oncologists, and was a senior examiner the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Eurasia region); the Premio for the Diploma in Medical Radiotherapy. She also freely Malaparte (Italy); the Shakespeare Prize (Germany); the gave her time as the founding medical director of the Wirral Erasmus Prize (Netherlands); the Park Kyong-ni Prize (South Hospice St John’s, for twelve years from 1983. She was fondly Korea); the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy remembered in Clatterbridge where she lived, even seventeen of Achievement; and the Hans Christian Andersen Literature years after her final retirement. Award (Denmark). After meeting her husband, Laurie, while in a full body-cast She was appointed CBE in the 1990 New Year Honours, and after back surgery, Jill went on to have three daughters. Even DBE for ‘Services to literature’ in the 1999 Birthday Honours. after Laurie’s death in 1996, her joy was cooking for her family She also received honours from eleven UK universities, and she had a passion for travel, and exploring new places: including an Honorary Fellowship from Somerville. In 2008, not backpacking, definitely the luxury version, but it became the Times named her as one of the 50 greatest British writers a sort of game trying to find places that she had not been to. since 1945. When a relative went volunteering, people would look at him blankly when he said he was going to Eritrea. When he told Jill, Barbara Cairns (1951) she looked thoughtful for a moment and then said, ‘Oh yes, Asmara is a fascinating Italianate capital’. She had, of course, been there. Barbara and her twin sister, Priscilla, In her final years, though quite ill and with reduced mobility, born in July 1933, were both very Jill remained upbeat, finding solace in cuddles with Sylvester talented mathematicians, and both the cat, watching nature programmes and keeping up with came up to Somerville to read the news, both family news and that on TV. She made a real Mathematics and were members of difference to many people’s lives over nearly nine decades and the Oxford Congregational Society. will be very much missed. Temperamentally, they were very different. Unlike the sociable and sporty Priscilla, Barbara was more Antonia Byatt (née Drabble, 1958 quiet and studious, and soon they BARBARA CAIRNS BLitt English) Honorary Fellow developed different interests. Barbara built a successful career as an actuary, first with Equity Dame Antonia is hailed as one of & Law and then with Bacon & Woodrow, and she always kept the UK’s most significant writers meticulous diaries and journals. At 28 Barbara qualified as a and critics since the Second World Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries and ten years later became War. Born in Sheffield as the child a Share Partner. At 38 she moved to Wimbledon, and five of a judge and an academic, Dame years later to Epsom. Antonia came to Somerville in 1958 Always interested in doing good, Barbara took early retirement following studies at Newnham at the age of 55 and gave time to voluntary work. This College, Cambridge and Bryn Mawr included the WRVS, Citizen’s Advice Bureau, Mid-Surrey College in the United States. She Mediation Service, and prison visiting through the New Bridge. suffered badly from asthma as a ANTONIA BYATT She joined the Religious Society of Friends 32 years ago and child, and the resulting periods of became a member of Epsom Quaker Meeting, and during her recuperation and seclusion allowed final days spoke with passion about its importance to her. her to develop a voracious passion for reading and storytelling. She met her first husband Ian Byatt at Oxford, and moved with Barbara liked peace and quiet, and she loyally supported local him to Durham following their marriage in 1959. classical concerts given by the Surrey Philharmonic Orchestra, She pursued a career in teaching to support her writing activity Epsom Chamber Choir and her brother’s chamber choir, and published her first novel, Shadow of a Sun, in 1964. Her Antiphonia. She joined groups to walk with others, and to writing career was temporarily halted by an awful tragedy in continue learning. 1972, when her 11 year-old son Charles was killed by a drunk Living simply and economically, Barbara felt it right to share driver. She recovered and published The Virgin in the Garden in her income with the many causes she believed in. At 60 she 1978. The book’s success allowed her to retire from teaching bought a former vicarage in Epsom so that she could rent spare in 1983 to work as a full-time writer. rooms to needy tenants. Although a naturally shy person, when Dame Antonia won many plaudits for her work, which spanned she chose a charity to support, she often got actively involved. ten novels, six short story collections, four novellas, nine Her favourite causes included Age Concern, Boom Credit critical studies, and five edited volumes. Her 1990 novel Union, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Greenpeace, Possession: A Romance was awarded the prestigious Booker the housing charity Hope Into Action and the Epsom & Ewell Prize for Fiction, and her 2009 work The Children’s Book was Refugee Network. In her mid-80s she was still going into also nominated for the award, as well as winning the James London for the Quaker Yearly Meeting or for demonstrations. Tait Black Memorial Prize. Her writing also won international She focused, as have so many Somervillians, on making life recognition, including the Irish Times International Fiction Prize; better for those around her. 39