TONIGHT 9-10PM! Come and meet the marvellous JULIAN BARNES, multi-award winning author of our February Book of the Month, THE NOISE OF TIME.

[TillyMumsnetBookClub]

JULIAN BARNES is the author of twenty previous books, including The History of the World in 10 1/2 chapters, Flaubert’s Parrot, Metroland, England, England, Arthur and George and Levels of Life. The New York Times described him as ‘a literary decathlete’ – he is a master of a hybrid form of fact blended with fiction, equally happy writing novels or essays, endlessly inventive and consistently erudite and elegant. The Noise of Time, his first full-length work of fiction since the 2011 Booker Prize-winning The Sense of an Ending, is set in 1930s Russia. The composer Shostakovitch has begun sleeping outside his apartment door so that when Stalin's men arrive to take him to the Big House, they will not abduct his wife and daughter too. Pravda’s review has denounced his latest opera as ‘a muddle’; it only took a short while to graduate to ‘enemy of the people’. Power has begun to take an interest in him and Power will now hold the balance of his fate. As Shostakovitch reflects on his career, his family and his various mishaps and misdemeanours, the relationship between art and society is explored and uncovered. The Noise of Time is a brilliant reflection of one man’s consciousness, amid the fear and terror of authoritarian rule. Completely gripping and informative and entertaining, it is a classic Barnes concoction.

You can find an excellent, detailed profile on Barnes and all his books in The Observer

Random House have 50 copies of The Noise of Time to give to Mumsnetters: to claim your copy please fill in your details on the book of the month page. We’ll post on the thread when all the copies have gone. If you’re not lucky enough to bag one of those, you can always get a Kindle edition or hardback copy here

We are honoured and delighted that Julian Barnes will be joining us to answer your questions about The Noise of Time, his previous award-winning novels and his exceptional career on Tuesday 23rd February, 9-10pm. Please feel free to discuss the book here throughout the month and then come and meet Julian on the night, and ask him a question or simply tell him what you thought of the book. It’ll be a fascinating chat, very much hope you can make it…

@TillyMumsnetBookClub

Am so glad there are so many fans out there - I am completely over the moon that he is going to be here at Bookclub and already wondering how to edit my list of a thousand questions...

The Noise of Time is excellent - looking forward to hearing your thoughts, and hope you can all make it on Tues 23rd..

Hi Tilly. Looking forward to answering your questions tomorrow. Best, Julian

I'd like to know why Julian chose to write a book in 1930s Russia. Is it a period of history which he has a personal interest in at all?

I find it fascinating how authors manage to have so many different ideas and where they choose to set their stories, so why did you choose to use 1930s Russia as your backdrop for this novel? Were there any particular influences which helped with it?

I was lucky enough to get a copy of this, thank you mumsnet and the publishers. I am enjoying it enormously, it's a time in history that I don't know much about however I would suppose that any totalitarian state would be much the same to live in.
I am intrigued about the amount of research that went into writing this and what sort of research.
I am reading at lunchtime at work and having to almost physically fight people off so that I can read in peace.

I love the mix of fiction and history - how much of the book is really true?

Thanks for the book MNHQ. I'm happy to pass mine on to anyone who missed out in exchange for a few quid in a charity pot. Just DM me an address.

Thanks for the book mn. As pp says, definitely high brow, but that suits me. I loved delving into the mind of the composer with his worries about his family, big ideas about art and politics, swirling around with random stuff about cars and cigarette brands.

My question for Julian - What was it like for you to write about well known historical figures and events? How is that different from writing entirely fictional stories where you can just make everything up?

Not a question, more of an observation. You're the only writer who regularly has me nodding along smugly as I identify with characters and behaviours, then whack cringing as I realise the description is bitingly critical. So yeah, thanks I think.

A question. Is research fun? Do you ever get lost in it or are you always thinking, is this useful, is this worth reading or visiting?

Thank you for my copy of the book. I have found it totally absorbing( rather scary as well though when you think about it). Perhaps because one of my favourite pieces of music is 'The Second Waltz' from "Suite for a Variety Orchestra". Unfortunately, I suppose it is considered 'populist' being film music. Why did you choose Shostakovich for your novel? Was it more for the time and place that he lived in, rather than an appreciation of his music?

Would you compromise your art/work for your life? Or would you make the ultimate sacrifice if it seemed the right thing to do?

In your opinion, what recent music, or indeed literary works, will be 'strong and true and pure enough to drown out the noise of time'?

Just a quick reminder that all booklovers welcome to come and join us tonight at 9pm even if you have not read/finished The Noise of Time - you can ask Julian a question about any of his novels, or his writing career in general.

Counting down the hours now, so excited about this discussion...

I haven't read The Noise of Time but just wanted to say that 'Parenthesis' in A History of the World in 10 and a Half Chapters is one of my favourite pieces of writing. It's a short essay on love: "Love Prose: A Plodder's Handbook. Look for it in the carpentry section." Everyone should read it.

I wonder - Julian, do you still like it, after all this time?

Oh, one of my favourite authors writing about my favourite composer, simply marvellous!

I'd like to ask Julian if he has a favourite piece of music by Shostakovich.

I loved the book, so a big thank you to Julian for talking to us tonight. I have two questions if that is ok. Firstly, could you say something about the title of the book The Noise of Time, and how you decided on that, as the phrase comes up on a few occasions and time seems to be a big theme in the book. Secondly, there are some really fascinating moments in the book, for example Dmitri's christening when the priest suggests his name, and the way he waits for the lift at his apartment. Were these in any way based on fact or did you create them?

I really enjoyed reading this - but what do you call it? Biography or novel?

So - how much of the detail is real and verified, and how much is imagined? ( as an example - the early account of him trying to run away and live with Jurgansen. This is important for showing the cowardice which haunted him all his life . . ) I'd love to hear your comments on this.
And thank you - I loved the book and learned SO much!

Good evening Julian
I'm about to start reading The Noise of Time having enjoyed many of your other works already. I love Talking it Over and Love Etc.
My question's about something else - I gather you are a Leicester City fan - I presume you are enjoying your team's exploits this season - do you think they will win the title? Would be lovely if they did!

Thanks for the book. At times I was torn between the writing as a semi-fictional story and a semi-biography, and found myself in and out of what was fact and what was fiction.
On the fictional side I would have enjoyed more dialogue...especially between Stalin and Shostakovich. Pages 79 thru 81 were very progressive and helped bring a reality and relevance to the undoubted tension Shostakovich was suffering. Also, the dialogue exchange between Shostakovich and Pospetov about the Chairmanship of the Russian Federation of Composers was excellent in raising the unspoken threat of not capitulating!
On the biographical side I didn't find anything new apart from Shostakovich's apparent love of chandeliers!
In the Author's Note I would be curious to know who the 'single source' about the happenings at The Big House referred to, was?
As with all things connected with Shostakovich it was another perspective to his tortured life during that period and I welcomed the opportunity to read JB's take on it....thank you.

Evening everyone

Firstly, a big thank you to all those who have posted their reviews and thoughts so far, and I hope you are all able to be here with us tonight.

I’m delighted and honoured to welcome Julian Barnes, writer of an extraordinary number of books and winner of an extraordinary amount of awards, to Bookclub this evening. Julian’s writing ranges from novels to journalism to essays to literary criticism. I am delighted that we have the chance to talk about them all with him over the next hour.

Julian, thank you very, very much indeed for giving us your time tonight. And congratulations on another outstanding novel.

We've already got a fair few questions to get through so I'll just add the standard Mumsnet ones that we like to ask all our authors...

What childhood book most inspired you?

What would be the first piece of advice you would give to anyone attempting to write fiction?

What is the best book you’ve given someone recently?

And the best you’ve received?

Over to you...

Hello.
What childhood book most inspired you?

I don't think any single book inspired me - to a particular action or line of thought. Reading as a whole inspired me, as the best way to understand life (though I didn't realize this was what it was doing at the time). The book I read most often as a boy was Speed Six by Bruce Carter, about how a pre-war vintage Bentley (in British racing green) won the Le Man 24-hour race ahead of gaudy postwar foreign cars - Maseratis and suchlike. But as you can see, it didn't inspire me to become a racing driver.

What would be the first piece of advice you would give to anyone attempting to write fiction?

Write about something you're really, really interested in, whatever genre it might fall into, however autobiographically based it might be.
But remember that merely expressing your own interest is not the same as successfully arousing a potential reader's interest.

What was the best book you've given recently?

Penelope Fitzgerald's 'Innocence'

And the best you've received?

Chernobyl Voices by Svetlana Alexievich (last year's Nobel Prizewinner), an oral history of the disaster; one of the most truthful and terrifying books I've ever read.

@RoastieToastieReastie

I'd like to know why Julian chose to write a book in 1930s Russia. Is it a period of history which he has a personal interest in at all?

The book actually runs from the 1930s to the 1970s, so the chronological heart of the Soviet experiment. I am a child of the Cold War and read Russian at school, and visited Russia in the 1960s. So it has always been a matter of close interest to me.

@minsmum

I was lucky enough to get a copy of this, thank you mumsnet and the publishers. I am enjoying it enormously, it's a time in history that I don't know much about however I would suppose that any totalitarian state would be much the same to live in. I am intrigued about the amount of research that went into writing this and what sort of research. I am reading at lunchtime at work and having to almost physically fight people off so that I can read in peace.

I tend to do research while I am writing the book rather than beforehand, then you find out what you really need. Some of it was very specific, like what sort of food did they serve on transatlantic flights in the 1940s? But in a way, the most important research consists of imagining what it's like to be Shostakovich.

@Givemecoffeeplease

I love the mix of fiction and history - how much of the book is really true?

Thanks for the book MNHQ. I'm happy to pass mine on to anyone who missed out in exchange for a few quid in a charity pot. Just DM me an address.

That's a professional secret: the idea is to make you believe that it is all true.

@aginghippy

Thanks for the book mn. As pp says, definitely high brow, but that suits me. I loved delving into the mind of the composer with his worries about his family, big ideas about art and politics, swirling around with random stuff about cars and cigarette brands.

My question for Julian - What was it like for you to write about well known historical figures and events? How is that different from writing entirely fictional stories where you can just make everything up?

Using real people - like Flaubert and Conan Doyle before Shostakovich - is constricting in that you can't go against their essential nature, but also liberating in that so much is given you already without you having to do too much work.

@Seriouslyffs

Not a question, more of an observation. You're the only writer who regularly has me nodding along smugly as I identify with characters and behaviours, then whack cringing as I realise the description is bitingly critical. So yeah, thanks I think.

A question. Is research fun? Do you ever get lost in it or are you always thinking, is this useful, is this worth reading or visiting?

Yes, research is usually fun because I only do the fun parts and fall back on a researcher for the boring parts.

@BearAusten

Thank you for my copy of the book. I have found it totally absorbing( rather scary as well though when you think about it). Perhaps because one of my favourite pieces of music is 'The Second Waltz' from "Suite for a Variety Orchestra". Unfortunately, I suppose it is considered 'populist' being film music. Why did you choose Shostakovich for your novel? Was it more for the time and place that he lived in, rather than an appreciation of his music?

Would you compromise your art/work for your life? Or would you make the ultimate sacrifice if it seemed the right thing to do?

In your opinion, what recent music, or indeed literary works, will be 'strong and true and pure enough to drown out the noise of time'?

Shostakovich was the figure in the entire history of Western music who has under most political pressure on a weekly, yearly, lifelong basis. I wanted to examine the collision between art and power, and look at the consequences of that conflict.

That's the unanswerable question. We don't know how courageous or how compromised we would be until we are faced with it. But I don't think we should overestimate our courage. See the Yevtushenko poem about Galileo in the book.

@DamnCommandments

I haven't read The Noise of Time but just wanted to say that 'Parenthesis' in A History of the World in 10 and a Half Chapters is one of my favourite pieces of writing. It's a short essay on love: "Love Prose: A Plodder's Handbook. Look for it in the carpentry section." Everyone should read it.

I wonder - Julian, do you still like it, after all this time?

Yes, I still like it, and I am very touched when I hear that people have sections of it read out at their weddings.

@MelanieCheeks

Oh, one of my favourite authors writing about my favourite composer, simply marvellous!

I'd like to ask Julian if he has a favourite piece of music by Shostakovich.

Always the First, Fifth and Tenth Symphonies. The Piano Quintet, and the Preludes and Fugues. But I have recently discovered the strange, eerie Second Cello Concerto, which I think is wonderful.