Dear Dr Barnes, (Me, old woman, rising eighty-one),
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‘We still miss Miss Winstanley very much. She was a lovely lady, and certainly the life and soul of the party around Pilcher House during her time here.‘
Dear Dr Barnes, (Me, old woman, rising eighty-one),
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‘We meet at various points in the great swathes of the past that neither of us were alive to witness.’
Allen Bratton on a daytrip to a castle with his older boyfriend.
‘Listening to three white poets, whom I suspect are academics, talk about the state of poetry.’
Oluwaseun Olayiwola eavesdrops on an older generation.
‘I’d been dubious about his company at first.’
Sarah Moss on watching Shakespeare with her twelve-year-old son.
‘She didn’t trust us because, to her, tenants were like children.’
Kate Zambreno on negotiating with her older landlady.
‘A moment now swallowed in embarrassment, I asked a question only a young person might ask an older one.’
Lynne Tillman on trying to understand what makes a generation.
Julian Barnes is the author of eleven novels and several collections of short stories. His essay, Nothing to be Frightened Of, was published in March 2008. He recently selected The Best of Frank O'Connor for Everyman. He won the Booker Prize in 2011 for The Sense of an Ending.
More about the author →‘They had dined well at no. 261 Landstrasse, and now passed eagerly into the music room.’
‘Naturally the artist is misunderstood. That is normal, and after a while becomes familiar.’
Julian Barnes shares a view of London from his childhood.
‘Let me make it clear that I never attend literary conferences. I know that they're held in art deco hotels close to legendary museums; that sessions on the future of the novel are conducted with camaraderie, brio and bonhomie.’
‘I swelter in the dusk / and chase the flies, abstractedly, / until I half forget them.’
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