The Diary of John Evelyn Book

As the majority of people who are currently reading An Education, I became interested in this book only because of the Oscar-nominated version of Lynn Barber's affair with an older man - I simply wanted to know if there was more to her story than shown on the big screen. In some ways, there was.

The movie is based on just one chapter of this very short book and, I have to say, the movie makers took quite a few liberties with the story. To my surprise, the real affair wasn't quite as dramatic as portrayed in the adaptation and the heroine wasn't quite that naive or that in love with the man.

As far as the rest of this memoir goes, I probably would have never picked up this book, simply because I have never heard of Lynn Barber before. Barber is evidently a known in some circles interviewer and a journalist. Maybe I am wrong, but aren't you supposed to be a famous person to write and publish an autobiography, otherwise who would care to read about your life? I don't mean that An Education is a bad book, but it is the type of book that any person could write. This memoir is not particularly detailed or mind-blowing, but a succinct story of Barber's life which is pretty much ordinary. It contains a few anecdotes about her affair with a much older man, about her promiscuous youth, of her work at "Penthouse" and other publications, and of her marriage. And that's about it.

Pretty much An Education is an engaging and short life story of a totally insignificant person