Shelf Help: Julian Barnes in Conversation with Hermione Lee, Kings Place

Multi award-winning author Julian Barnes makes a rare public appearance to discuss fear, faith and beliefs with eminent academic and writer Professor Dame Hermione Lee.

Having written heart-wrenchingly about his wife’s death in Levels of Life , and then more recently explored dwindling Christianity and mediates on mortality in his family memoir, Nothing to be Frightened Of, Julian Barnes offer much wisdom on the subject of god and grief. 

Thrice shortlisted for the Man Booker prize, Barnes went on to win it in 2011 for Sense of an Ending. His novels have garnered international acclaim and won a bevy of awards. Barnes's novels bridge the complexity of high-brow literature and the accessibility of popular fiction -- often exploring subtle concepts and employing artful techniques while still featuring on best-sellers lists.

Joining him to explore the subject of atheism and mourning is distinguished academic Hermione Lee. She is an expert on modern fiction, with a particular speciality in female writers and life-writing. Lee is a journalist, reviewer,  keen critic has written biographies of many of the most important yet sometimes overlooked figures in modern literary scholarship -- including Virginia Woolf, Elizabeth Bowen and, most recently, Penelope Fitzgerald. 

This is an exciting and unusual opportunity to see two literary lions discuss the themes and ideas that are fundamental to their contrasting yet overlapping careers as writers.