Author Iris Murdoch’s troubled private life and insecurities about her abilities as a writer are laid bare in a series of letters on show at Kingston University.

The previously unpublished letters between her and French poet and novelist Raymond Queneau were recently bought by the university for £50,000, made possible through a series of grants and donations.

Most of the 160 items of correspondence were written when Mrs Murdoch was in her late 20s and early 30s - before her first novel was published and before she married.

She was a prolific letter writer and the Queneau collection is significant because it creates an intimate portrait of her development as a writer, philosopher and as a woman, and describes her feelings of despair over a string of complicated love affairs and her professional capabilities.

Dr Anne Rowe, director of Kingston University’s centre for Iris Murdoch studies, said: “The unprecedented insight into her inner life allowed in these letters will inform any future biography or research into how a writer’s life is transformed into art.”

Mrs Murdoch herself recognised the importance of her correspondence with Mr Queneau, telling him: “Anything I shall ever write will owe so much, so much, to you”.

Her letters to him spanned almost 30 years, although her dependence on him appeared to end in 1956 when she met and married John Bayley.

The letters will be added to the collection already held by university archives, which includes the author’s annotated libraries from her Oxford home and London flat.