Biography and lifestyle

1. Julian Patrick Barnes

2. Julian Barnes was born in Leicester, England on January 19, 1946. He
was educated at the City of London School from 1957 to 1964 and at
Magdalen College, Oxford, from which he graduated in modern
languages (with honours) in 1968.

3. After graduation, he worked as a lexicographer for the Oxford English
Dictionary supplement for three years. In 1977, Barnes began working as a
reviewer and literary editor for the New Statesman and the New Review.
From 1979 to 1986 he worked as a television critic, first for the New
Statesman and then for the Observer.

4. Metroland (1980) was Julian Barnes's first novel. It took between 7-8
years to write and draws heavily on his personal experiences growing up
in the suburbs of London.

5. Written in three parts, the first section focuses on the friendship of
Christopher and Toni and their childhood disgust for the bourgeoisie. The
second section finds Christopher in Paris during les événements of 1968,
where he misses out on the events because he is too busy having sex. The
last section outlines Christopher's life back in the London suburbs, his
marriage, his child, and his stable job.

6. Before She Met Me (1982)
Graham Hendrick, an historian, has left his wife Barbara for the vivacious Ann,
and is more than pleased with his new life. Until, that is, the day he discovers
Ann's celluloid past as a mediocre film actress. Soon Graham is pouncing on
old clues, examining her books for inscriptions from past lovers, frequenting
cinemas and poring over the bad movies she appeared in. It's not that he
blames Anne for having a past before they met, but history has always
mattered to him…

7. Flaubert´s Parrot (1984)
In Flaubert's Parrot, Julian Barnes spins out a multiple mystery, an
exuberant metafictional inquiry into the ways in which art mirrors life
and then turns around to shape it; a look at the perverse autopsies that
readers perform on books and lovers perform on their beloved; and a
piercing glimpse at the nature of obsession and betrayal, both scholarly
and romantic.

8. Staring At The Sun (1986)
Staring at the Sun charts the life of Jean Serjeant, from her beginning as
a naive, carefree country girl before the war through to her wry and
trenchant old age in the year 2020.

9. A History of the World in 10½ Chapters (1989)
It's a hilariously revisionist account of Noah's ark, narrated by a passenger who
doesn't appear in Genesis. It's a sneak preview of heaven. It encompasses the
stories of a cruise ship hijacked by terrorists and of woodworms tried for
blasphemy in sixteenth-century France.

10. Talking It Over (1991)
The ostentatious Oliver falls in love with quiet Gillian and wants to
marry her. The problem? Gillian has already married Oliver's best and
oldest friend, the somewhat stale but stable Stuart.

11. The Porcupine (1992)
With the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, the deposed Party leader
Stoyo Petkanov is standing trial for crimes against his country. Unrepentant,
Petkanov faces his chief prosecutor, Peter Solinsky, questioning Solinsky's (and
the country's) ideas of history and nationalism.

12. England, England (1998)
Picture an England where all the pubs are quaint, the Royals behave
themselves (more or less), and the cliffs of Dover actually are white. Now
imagine that the principal national treasures—from Stonehenge to
Buckingham Palace—are grouped together on the Isle of Wright.

13. Love,etc (2000) – sequel to Talking it Over

14. The Sense of an Ending
Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2011
The story of a man coming to terms with the mutable past, Julian Barnes's new
novel is laced with his trademark precision, dexterity and insight. It is the work
of one of the world's most distinguished writers.

15. Julian Barnes has written numerous novels, short stories, and essays. He has
also translated a book by French author Alphonse Daudet and a collection of
German cartoons by Volker Kriegel. His writing has earned him considerable
respect as an author who deals with the themes of history, reality, truth and
love.
Barnes lives in London.

16. Website
http://www.julianbarnes.com