Showing results by narrator "Julian Barnes" in All Categories

'You put together two things that have not been put together before. And the world is changed...' Julian Barnes's new book is about ballooning, photography, love and grief; about putting two things, and two people, together, and about tearing them apart. One of the judges who awarded him the 2011 Man Booker Prize described him as 'an unparalleled magus of the heart'. This book confirms that opinion.

Investigative journalist Sam Irvin's tell-all behind the making of FRANKENSTEIN: THE TRUE STORY (Universal / NBC-TV, 2-part miniseries, 1973) has many facets. It is an eye-opening exposé on the movie industry of the early 1970s with an emphasis on Universal Pictures and the horror genre. But the chronicle also reveals a hidden agenda – fueled by the astonishing courage of a revolutionary group of LGBTQ+ artists spearheaded by producer Hunt Stromberg Jr. and his screenwriters Christopher Isherwood (THE BERLIN STORIES – the basis for CABARET) and his lover, artist Don Bachardy.

Julian Barnes' new book is, among many things, a family memoir, an exchange with his brother (a philosopher), a meditation on morality and the fear of death, a celebration of art, an argument with and about God, and homage to the French writer Jules Renard. Though he warns us that 'this is not my autobiography', the result is a tour of the mind of one of our most brilliant writers.

Geoffrey Braithwaite is a retired doctor haunted by an obsession with the great French literary genius, Gustave Flaubert. As Geoffrey investigates the mystery of the stuffed parrot Flaubert borrowed from the Museum of Rouen to help research one of his novels, we learn an enormous amount about the writer’s work, family, lovers, thought processes, health and obsessions. But we also gradually come to learn some important and shocking details about Geoffrey and his own life.