The Booker winning author talks about how his most recent work was inspired by Hilary Mantel, and the way the books world has changed since his debut was published more than 40 years agoToo many people have been dying lately,” Julian Barnes reflects over the phone from his home in north London. He has muted the Test match, he tells me, so he won’t be tempted to shout at the screen. This is a follow-up conversation to a meeting earlier this year to discuss his latest novel, Elizabeth Finch, in which, although unnamed in the book, Hilary Mantel, who died aged 70 last September, played a key part. Barnes’s great friend Carmen Callil, founder of Virago Press, died a month later. “I did adore her,” he says now. And, since we last spoke, Martin Amis has also died, in May.“I knew he didn’t want me to ask him how he was,” Barnes says of his final communications with Amis, who moved to New York in 2011. “So we had a kind of football email exchange: ‘What do you think of Arsenal this season?’ and so on. At the end, I got an email saying, in effect, ‘Look after yourself, old friend.’ I took that as it was intended, which was ‘Goodbye.’” Barnes didn’t email him again. “He did it stylishly, as you would expect,” he says. “Stylishly and privately.” Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2023-09-16 08:00:25 UTC ]
Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Tue, 06/09/2011 - 16:00 Bookmaker William Hill has Julian Barnes as the favourite to win the Man Booker Prize for Fiction after the shortlist was announced today. Retailers Waterstone's and Daunt Books agree Barnes' The Sense of An Ending (Jonathan... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Tue, 26/07/2011 - 16:42 William Hill has installed former Man Booker winner Alan Hollinghurst as the 5/1 favourite to clinch the prize for the second time for his novel The Stranger's Child (Picador). The longlist was announced this afternoon and the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Tue, 05/04/2011 - 08:28 The Big Green Bookshop is celebrating after achieving 96% of its path to financial safety. The indie retailer based in Wood Green, north London, sent out a mass appeal to its customers a month ago asking them to buy one extra... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 24/03/2011 - 15:52 Setting books within the wider cultural scene and building collaborations are set to be key themes at this year's Book Industry Conference, as organisers revealed the event programme. BIC 2011, which takes place between... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Fri, 25/02/2011 - 08:38 The Big Green Bookshop is appealing to 1,000 of its loyal customers to help secure its future by buying one book each. Owners Simon Key and Tim West of the indie in Wood Green, North London, have also set up an online donation... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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