Review:
"Always intelligent and perceptive, but so beautifully written that it’s easy to understand." (Jancis Robinson Week)
"Intelligent and perceptive, but so beautifully written it’s easy to understand... He captures the complex relationship between the French and the English." (Jancis Robinson Waitrose Weekend)
"Wonderfully ironic, perceptive and at times tender... Barnes has created something unique in his work, a particular way of looking at life, at words, at relationships, which is the mark of every true stylist" (Financial Times)
"His writing demonstrates the billowing lightness of imagination... reading these stories, you perceive and love France afresh... Cross Channel is characterised by the intelligence, irony and wit you associate with his writing, but it is also suffused with feeling, deeply seasoned with affection" (Independent)
"A glittering collection of stories... His marvellously supple and exact prose is matched with subjects that powerfully stir his creativity... It's impossible to imagine a fictional panorama of Britain's long relationship with France realized with more cordial understanding" (Sunday Times)
From the Publisher:
Wise and witty collection of stories of British in France
In these exquisitely crafted and turned stories spanning several centuries, Julian Barnes takes as his universal theme the British in France, our fascination with that country, our various and mixed reasons for being there and our sometimes ambiguous reception. These clever, wise and imaginative stories are permeated with understanding of what it has meant for generations from these islands to cross the Channel. The No.1 bestseller from one of Britain's finest writers. "Love, sex, art, literature, wars, religion, wine, spirit, the steam engine and, yes, Eurostar: they are all there. All the emotions, attitudes, pursuits and endeavours that typically seem to link Britain to France feature in the first collection of short stories by Julian Barnes...A delightful book" Thierry Naudin, European; "The book is a delight...Undoubtedly Barnes's best book since Flaubert's Parrot" Allan Massie, Scotsman
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.