Julian Barnes, Islington Assembly Hall

Julian Barnes is a great novelist of our time, the kind of author who expertly bridges the complexity of high-brow literature and the accessibility of popular fiction. His novels Flaubert’s Parrot, England, England and Arthur & George were all shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and with The Sense of An Ending, a moving rumination on memory and mortality, he finally picked up that most prized of literary accolades.

His newest novel The Noise of Time, due for publication in 2016, is set in Stalin’s Russia, and draws its inspiration from the lives of the era’s artists. To mark the release of this his twelfth novel, Barnes is due to speak at Islington Assembly as part of the Guardian Live series. He will be in conversation with Hermione Lee. Reviewer, critic and expert in life writing, she has written biographies of many of the most important yet sometimes overlooked figures in literary scholarship, including Virginia Woolf, Elizabeth Bowen and, most recently, Penelope Fitzgerald.

As this is Barnes’ first novel since The Sense of Ending, expectations are high. Bookworms, don’t miss your chance to hear the author speak.