Lynn Barber (born 22 May 1944) is a British journalist who has worked for many publications, including ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

''.

Early life

Barber was born in Bagshot and attended Lady Eleanor Holles School in southwest London. While she was studying for her A-Levels she had a two-year relationship with a significantly older man, whom she knew as Alan Green, but who also called himself Alan Prewalski. He was an associate of Peter Rachman, and he deceived both Barber and her parents. In 2009, Barber wrote a memoir of the affair, ''An Education'', which became the basis of a film of the same title. Barber read English Language and Literature at St Anne's College, Oxford.

Career

Barber worked for '' Penthouse'' for seven years until 1974, being successively editorial assistant, literary editor, features editor and deputy editor;

Dennis Griffiths Dennis Griffiths (8 December 1933 – 24 December 2015) was a British journalist and historian, regarded as the founding father of newspaper history from the earliest days of Fleet Street. His ''Encyclopedia of the British Press 1422–1992'' has ...

(ed.) ''The Encyclopedia of the British Press, 1422–1992'', London & Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992, p.88. she left to have children. From 1982 to 1989 she was a feature writer on the '' Sunday Express'' magazine, and she then joined '' The Independent on Sunday'' before its launch in 1990. Barber has also written for '' Vanity Fair'', ''

'', ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' and, from 1996 to 2009, ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

''.Stephen Brook
"Lynn Barber to Leave ''Observer'',"
''The Guardian'', 17 September 2009. Barber is best known for her interviews. She was once quoted by

Will Self William Woodard Self (born 26 September 1961) is an English writer, journalist, political commentator and broadcaster. He has written 11 novels, five collections of shorter fiction, three novellas and nine collections of non-fiction writing. Se ...

as describing her method as "start ng... from a position of really disliking people, and then compel

ing Ing, ING or ing may refer to: Art and media * '' ...ing'', a 2003 Korean film * i.n.g, a Taiwanese girl group * The Ing, a race of dark creatures in the 2004 video game '' Metroid Prime 2: Echoes'' * "Ing", the first song on The Roches' 199 ...

them to win you over." An interview with the conceptual artists Jake and Dinos Chapman was not a success, and she claims the Chapman Brothers have threatened to kill her if they ever meet again.Lynn Barber
"How I Suffered for Art's Sake,"
''The Guardian'', 1 October 2006; accessed 3 August 2008. Barber is also remembered for her 2001 article about a chaotic meeting with singer Marianne Faithfull. Barber has won six British press awards. Her books include two collections of interviews, ''Mostly Men'' and ''Demon Barber'', a sex book ''How to Improve Your Man in Bed'', and a survey of Victorian popular natural history writers, ''The Heyday of Natural History''. In 2006 Barber was one of the judges for the

Turner Prize The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award). ...

and wrote an article in ''The Observer'' criticising some aspects of the judging process. Barber's memoir of her teenage love affair, ''An Education'', was published in June 2009. Its genesis was in a short piece on a similar theme that Barber wrote for the British literary magazine ''

Granta ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story's supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make ...

''. Nick Hornby adapted this short article as a film with the same title, made by

BBC Films BBC Film (formerly BBC Films) is the feature film-making arm of the BBC. It was founded on 18 June 1990, and has produced or co-produced some of the most successful British films of recent years, including ''Truly, Madly, Deeply (film), Truly, ...

and released in October 2009, and available on video from March 2010. In the meantime Barber had expanded the ''Granta'' article into her memoir, too late for Hornby to use it as source material for the film. In 2009 Barber returned to ''The Sunday Times'' to write for its magazine. In July 2011 Barber was successfully sued by Sarah Thornton for libel and malicious falsehood over Barber's review of ''Seven Days in the Art World'', published in ''The Daily Telegraph'' on 1 November 2008. Barber's memoir of her career as an interviewer, ''A Curious Career'', was published in May 2014.

Personal life

While at Oxford, Barber was briefly in a relationship with Howard Marks, who would later become an infamous drug smuggler. Following the end of a different relationship, Barber slept with as many as 50 men before meeting fellow student David Cardiff, whom she married in 1971. The couple had two daughters. Cardiff died in 2003.

Awards

Barber was selected as Interviewer of the Year at The Press Awards in 1985, 1986, 1990, 1996, 2002 and 2012.

References

External links

Barber's contributions
at ''

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Barber, Lynn 1944 births Living people People from Bagshot People educated at Lady Eleanor Holles School Alumni of St Anne's College, Oxford English journalists British women journalists Penthouse (magazine) people