Barnes, Julian (Patrick)

English novelist and critic. His first novel, Metroland, was published in 1981, followed by Before She Met Me in 1982. It was his third novel, Flaubert's Parrot (1984) – skilfully combining fiction, biography, and essay – that brought him an international reputation, winning the French Prix Medicis Etrangère (the first British book to do so). Later works include The Porcupine (1992), a political parable, Cross Channel (1996), a collection of stories about the British in France, England, England (1998), a futuristic comedy (shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1998), and Love, Etc (2000), a novel.

His work is characterized by a distinctive blend of irony, intellectual playfulness and a subtle, tightly controlled style. He has also published detective novels under the name Dan Kavanagh.

His other works include the novels Staring at the Sun (1986), A History of the World in 101/2 Chapters (1989), and Talking It Over (1991). He has also worked as a journalist and critic, notably for the Times Literary Supplement; Letters from London 1990–1995 (1995) is a collection of articles written as London correspondent of the New Yorker.