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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Nadia Khomami Arts and culture correspondent

Britain is a ‘bifurcated place nowadays’, says Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes.
Barnes made the comments before a literary event hosted by the charity Freedom from Torture. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

Julian Barnes has said Britain is a “bifurcated place nowadays” and accused politicians of encouraging “mean-spiritedness”.

Barnes, who won the Booker prize in 2011 with The Sense of an Ending, has been a patron of Freedom from Torture – a charity which provides therapeutic care to survivors of torture who seek protection in the UK – for 25 years.

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