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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‘She must have loved gold seeing that everything in the penthouse was gold. We didn’t sit. Fear didn’t let us see where to sit.’ A story by Adachioma Ezeano.
‘I had also, a week earlier, been fired for trying to sleep with my boss’s husband. I got the idea from a book, or maybe every book.’ A story by Emily Adrian.
‘The Mitsubishi conglomerate controls a forty per cent share of the world market in bluefin tuna; they are freezing and hoarding huge stocks of the fish every year.’ Katherine Rundell on extinction speculation.
‘Two roof tiles are missing to the rear: the kiss of death. Without repair, ruination is now inevitable. Until then, this is my best hope of shelter.’ Cal Flyn visits the island of Swona in northern Scotland.
‘I’m on the cliff of myself & these aren’t wings, they’re futures. / For as long as I can remember my body was a small town nightmare.’ A poem by Ocean Vuong.
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.’
‘After a series of seizures in my temporal lobe, I started to forget words and say sentences backwards.’
Missouri Williams on the drive to circle back.
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