Julian Barnes was born in Leicester, England on January 19, 1946 and attended the City of London School, later graduating from a college in Oxford. He worked as a lexicographer for the Oxford English Dictionary in the 1970s. Barnes began working as a reviewer and literary editor for the New Statesmen and the New Review publications in the late 1970s, and later worked as a television critic. He has received several awards and honors for his writing, and has written nine novels, a book of short stories, and two collections of essays. Under the pseudonym of Dan Kavanagh, Barnes has also written several crime novels. He currently lives in London.