VANESSA GUIGNERY is Professor of English Literature at the École Normale Supérieure in Lyon, France. She is the author of several books and essays on the work of Julian Barnes, including The Fiction of Julian Barnes (Macmillan, 2006), and Conversations with Julian Barnes (Mississippi Press, 2009), co-edited with Ryan Roberts.

'A superb collection of scholarly interviews with celebrated contemporary novelists...sit back and enjoy the revealing responses of British literary maestros to Guignery's questions - questions that allow eminent authors the opportunity to explain their work at length, in their own terms...It is a very real privilege to share the experiences and insights of the greatest writers of our day.' - The Bay 'I found the interviews themselves as well as the author introductions to be wonderfully engaging and instructive. I believe a student audience, particularly more advanced college students interested in creative writing, would find the text both accessible and enlightening. As a fiction writer, I found these interviews inspiring, thought provoking, and at times, frankly, quite moving. It was a pleasure to immerse myself in such a wide-ranging conversation in which the writers' insights both overlapped and diverged.' - Bryn Chancellor, Assistant Professor of English, University of Montevallo, USA

• IntroductionJulian BarnesJonathan CoeKazuo IshiguroHanif KureishiDavid LodgeArundhati RoyWill SelfGraham SwiftFurther Reading: British Literature Since 2000Index.