In his last book, Julian Barnes circles big ideas and reflects on his shortcomings

By Patrick Flanery, Chair in Creative Writing, Adelaide University

Julian Barnes, author of 14 previous novels, ten volumes of nonfiction, and three collections of short stories under his own name, plus four crime novels under the pseudonym Dan Kavanagh, has announced that his new novel, Departure(s), will be his last. The narrator – who both is and is not Barnes – tells us this directly and the information has accompanied advance notice from his publisher. This kind of framing necessarily invites the reader to judge the book as a…

Read complete article

~	Uganda: Post Election Assault on Political Opposition

~	Men are embracing beauty culture — many of them just refuse to call it that

~	How Canada and Sweden are redefining northern security and co-operation

~	Is time a fundamental part of reality? A quiet revolution in physics suggests not

~	The plan to clean up England and Wales’ water industry ignores the sector’s biggest problem

~	Another kind of student debt is entrenching inequality

~	How ordinary neighbourhoods became battlegrounds in the politics of ‘broken Britain’

~	Pubs are far more valuable to society than the tax they pay

~	How much would you pay for school to provide your child with lunch every day?

~	Why is my migraine worse in summer?