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An Education  By  cover art

An Education

By: Lynn Barber
Narrated by: Carolyn Seymour
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Publisher's summary

When Lynn Barber was 16, a stranger in a maroon sports car pulled up beside her as she was on her way home from school and offered her a ride. It was the beginning of a long journey from innocence to precocious experience—an affair with an older man that would change her life. Barber’s seducer left her with a taste for luxury hotels and posh restaurants and trips abroad, expensive habits that she managed to support in later life as a successful London journalist whose barbed interviews both terrorized and fascinated her smart-set subjects.

A poignant, shockingly candid account of the stages in a literary life—from promiscuity at Oxford to a stint at Penthouse to a complex marriage that endured—An Education is a classic of English memoir.

©2009 Lynn Barber (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“The most riveting memoir you will read this year, comic and tragic by turns. A small masterpiece.” ( Literary Review)
“Candid, unsentimental and extremely funny. I read it in one glorious go, laughing and crying throughout.” (Zoë Heller, novelist and journalist)

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What listeners say about An Education

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Unremarkable

Since the film version dealt with the most salacious years of Ms. Barber's life, the rest of the autobiography was a bit of a disappointment, especially the ending which was cathartic for the author, but depressing for the listener. Of some interest were her years as a journalist with Penthouse Mag.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Good memoir, even if her memory is unreliable.

Good read start to finish. It is not so much about Lynn Barber's accomplishments, as it is about the human element. I cannot stand to consume a book through audio if the narration is poor. The voice of the Carolyn Seymour figured strongly into my choice for this read. I would recommend this audio book.

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1 person found this helpful