An Education – See the film, read the book

An Education Lynn Barber

An Education Lynn BarberUsually I always read the book before the film, but in the case of An Education by Lynn Barber, I saw the film on DVD first. In this case it didn’t matter, for the events that were adapted for the film, composed just a chapter in her memoir.  It was originally written as an article for Granta magazine and later formed the basis of the book.

First to the film, which has been much lauded and justifiably so.  Nick Hornby’s script really did seem to get under a bright sixteen year old’s skin, it was both extremely funny and touching when it needed to be.  It must have seemed to be a wonderful adventure, when an older man takes an interest in you and manages to seduce your parents too. Carey Mulligan was marvellous as the teenager Jenny rebelling against her parents only to find them supporting her in it, although they didn’t really know what she got up to. Peter Saarsgard was perfect as the older man with a veneer of sophistication, but a dodgy life. The other supporting actors were wonderful too, Alfred Molina’s puffed up father, Emma Thompson’s scene-stealing headmistress, Rosamund Pike’s beautiful but dim floosie, and Olivia Williams as the lonely English teacher who gets Jenny through her exams. The Soundtrack was also excellent, including Floyd Cramer, Billy Fury, Juliette Greco and Mel Tormé along with Duffy and Madeleine Peyroux sounding equally at home in the 60s.

You know that that affair was doomed from the outset, but luckily Barber got through it and has gone on to have a long and fascinating career in journalism after going to Oxford. She tells us how her adventures as a teenager coloured her life ever after, she found it hard to trust people and flitted from bed to bed for some time before meeting ‘the one’, David, who would be her rock all the way from Oxford until he died a few years ago.

Lynn BarberBarber went on to work for the fledgling magazine Penthouse as features editor, which for a top-shelf mag then was a very different animal to those of today, and actually had proper articles and book extracts along with the lovelies.  She moved to the Express and then to the new Independent on Sunday and it was here that she earned the epithet of ‘Demon Barber’ with her in depth interviews and she says,

I’m still quite bemused by the Demon Barber reputation, I think it arises from the the fact that people remember the hatchet jobs more than they remember the friendly pieces. But whether this is because I write them better, or because of general Schadenfreude, I never know. The interviews I remember from the Independent on Sunday are the more thoughtful ones I did with Rudolf Nureyev, Roald Dahl, Muriel Spark, but they got less attention. The same thing happened again at the Observer – it was the hatchet jobs on, say, Harriet Harman, Marianne Faithfull or John Prescott that readers seemed to remember.

This memoir gives a great glimpse into features journalism by a mould-breaker. Barber is brutally honest and occasionally shocks, but also displays a great sense of humour and wit, combined with a deep love of her family which made it unputdownable. (8/10)


Source: Own copy

Lynn Barber, An Education (Penguin, 2009) paperback, 192 pages.

2 thoughts on “An Education – See the film, read the book

  1. crimeworm says:

    I adored this book, and the film, which I saw later. I always enjoy any Alfred Molina performance, and Peter Saarsgard is very easy on the eye! But it’s really a wonderful cast all round.

Leave a Reply to crimewormCancel reply