The Booker Prize foundation and the Man Booker PLC Charitable Trust funded RNIB's production of all of the books on the shortlist in braille, giant print and talking book.
Author Julian Barnes joined Robert Kirkwood of Insight radio to talk about his Booker wining novel The sense of an ending (braille 3v; giant print 2v; TB 19027).
Essentially the book is about the imperfections of memory over time, but it is about much more than that?
Yes, you always have to have a one line tag to describe your book. It's about memory over time and getting it wrong - things you believed for many years turn out to be partially or even completely wrong, that is the starting point of the novel. One of my favourite quotes is an old Russian saying "He lies like an eye witness", the fact that eye witnesses or even documents are unreliable. An awful lot goes missing whether it's written or people's evidence. Of course biographers and historians are more used to this happening and they have to patch and weave their way across the holes, often the same thing happens with memories of our own lives.
A lot of your books centre on mortality, death and getting older. Is that a subject that interests you?
I think I've had death in my books since my first novel. It's the thing we all have to consider and puts life in context, it makes a sense or nonsense of life depending on how you look at it. I've always had a sense that death is on a parallel railway track and the tracks are going to cross at some stage and wipe you out.
Did you know that The sense of an ending was going to be fairly short? Did you have an ending in mind when you started?
Yes I generally do. I think it's a bit strange setting off on a journey and not knowing where you want it to go. although I know some authors who do that. Every idea you have has its own natural length and you shouldn't try to stretch it, if anything you need to make it more concise.
You has campaigned against the closure of libraries. How important do you think they are to society as a whole?
Incredibly important. It's glib to think everything is available through the internet and that you can just download a book. The experience of handling a physical book is different. The wider social experience and value of libraries can't be expressed in financial terms. Many families don't have a book in the house and the library is a place to get used to reading and awakening the mind.
It's short sighted to close down libraries, it's sometimes regarded as the easy short term option but it's a very bad long term option.
You have supported RNIB's Talking book service in the past why do you think its important?
It would be awful for people to be deprived of the pleasures of books and reading because of blindness. I don't think you'd find a writer in the country who wouldn't support the RNIB and all that it does.
This was the fourth time you've been nominated for the Man Booker prize and you were the bookie's favourite.
Well that doesn't mean anything I was the bookie's favourite last time! This was the 4th successive decade I'd been shortlisted so I know the in and outs of not winning pretty well. It's five people who you don't know, reading and rereading your book maybe 2 or 3 times. Superstitiously I never read the other shortlisted books. Of course I always hoped to win.
Books by Julian Barnes
You can find these and other titles, by Julian Barnes in the library:
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Arthur & George - Braille 7v, giant print 5v; TB 14302
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Before she met me - Braille 3v; TB 4245
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Cross Channel - Braille 4v; TB 11040
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England, England - Braille 6v; TB 11670
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Flaubert's Parrot - Braille 3v; giant print 2v; TB5423