Julian Barnes was born in Leicester, England, on January 19, 1946. Both of his parents were teachers of French, and he studied French Literature and Modern Languages at Oxford University. He has held jobs as a lexicographer for the Oxford English Dictionary, a reviewer and literary editor for the New Statesmen and the New Review, and a television critic. Barnes has written numerous award-winning works including Metroland, which won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1980, and Flaubert's Parrot, which won both the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize and a Prix Medicis. Barnes's works are noted for their literary depth, intellectual tone, and British styling. Barnes writes detective novels under the… pseudonym Dan Kavanaugh and has given Kavanaugh a biographical identity of his own. Duffy, the hero of Duffy, Fiddle City, and Putting the Boot In, is a bisexual excop. In sharp contrast to the works under his real name, the detective stories are violent, comical, action-packed thrillers. Barnes resides in London.