BARNEY NORRIS

" Le monde sachève sans cesse autour de nous. Chaque mesure de notre partition appartient déjà au souvenir et à limagination au moment où nous la jouons. Autant lécouter. " Cest une soirée paisible à

" Le monde sachève sans cesse autour de nous. Chaque mesure de notre partition appartient déjà au souvenir et à limagination au moment où nous la jouons. Autant lécouter. " Cest une soirée paisible à

A Times bestseller. "Wonderful...I was hooked from the first page. It's the real stuff." (Michael Frayn). "Deeply affecting". (Guardian). "Superb". (Mail on Sunday). "Barney Norris is a rare and precious talent". (Evening Standard). There exists in all of us a song waiting to be sung which is as heart-stopping and vertiginous as the peak of the cathedral. That is the meaning of this quiet city, where the spire soars into the blue, where rivers and stories weave into one another, where lives intertwine.' One quiet evening in Salisbury, the peace is shattered by a serious car crash. At that moment, five lives collide - a flower seller, a schoolboy, an army wife, a security guard, a widower - all facing their own personal disasters. As one of those lives hangs in the balance, the stories of all five unwind, drawn together by connection and coincidence into a web of love, grief, disenchantment and hope that perfectly represents the joys and tragedies of small town life

I wish there could be a day where families came together and just said it all to each other. Because then everyone would know it all, and thered be nothing left to hurt anyone. Sussex. London. Wiltshire. Northamptonshire. Wales. Over three decades, a family spreads across the country, and the chord they made together starts to fray, the distance between them changing the music of their lives. Barney Norriss We Started to Sing is a love song to the people who raised him, and a hymn to the bravery of our brief lives. The play premiered at the Arcola Theatre, London, in May 2022.

This is the first study of one of the most significant voices of modern international theatre, one of Waless leading writers, and one of the most compelling and beautiful bodies of work in the last fifty years. To Bodies Gone is written by playwright Barney Norris, who has assisted in Gills productions and possesses an intimate and personal knowledge of Gills processes and values. He explores a career remarkable in its constancy from the groundbreaking stagingideas of the early productions to the extraordinary heights of the mature work, illustrated by the rave reviews for Versailles, Gill latest play. Norriss principle theme is the aesthetic Gill introduced to theatre, and which has remained the bedrock of his work, in its various manifestations across several decades: Gills work as a writer and director has consistently revealed the extraordinary in the daily world. Analysing his career broadly chronologically, this study places Gills work in the wider context of the theatre, providing a portrait ofBritish theatre in the second half of the twentieth century and contributing new insights into theatre history. To Bodies Gone includes chapters on Gills early work, influences (Lawrence, Chekhov, Beckett), his translations and adaptations (Lawrence, Chekhov, Wedekind, Faulkner), his directing career at the Royal Court, Riverside Studios, National Theatre and NT Studio, plus his major plays - Small Change, Kick for Touch, In the Blue, Cardiff East, The York Realist and, most recently, Versailles, Gills exploration of the new order following the first world war. The result is a major study full of insight into Gill and into British Theatre.

Wonderful...I was hooked from the first page. It's the real stuff." (Michael Frayn). "Deeply affecting". (Guardian). "Superb". (Mail on Sunday). "Barney Norris is a rare and precious talent". (Evening Standard). 'There exists in all of us a song waiting to be sung which is as heart-stopping and vertiginous as the peak of the cathedral. That is the meaning of this quiet city, where the spire soars into the blue, where rivers and stories weave into one another, where lives intertwine.' One quiet evening in Salisbury, the peace is shattered by a serious car crash. At that moment, five lives collide - a flower seller, a schoolboy, an army wife, a security guard, a widower - all facing their own personal disasters. As one of those lives hangs in the balance, the stories of all five unwind, drawn together by connection and coincidence into a web of love, grief, disenchantment and hope that perfectly represents the joys and tragedies of small town life.

The deeply moving second novel from the author of the award-winning FIVE RIVERS MET ON A WOODED PLAIN. 'Courageous...memorable...moving' - Guardian 'One of our most exciting young writers' - The Times 'Life-affirming, beautiful and achingly poignant' - Donal Ryan 'Isn't the life of any person made up out of the telling of two tales, after all? The whole world makes more sense if you remember that everyone has two lives, their real lives and their dreams, both stories only a tape's breadth apart from each other, impossibly divided, indivisibly close.' Every year, Robert's family comes together at a rambling old house to celebrate his birthday. Aunts, uncles, distant cousins - it has been a milestone in their lives for decades. But this year Robert doesn't want to be reminded of what has happened since they last met - and nor, for quite different reasons, does his granddaughter Kate. Neither of them is sure they can face the party. But for both Robert and Kate, it may become the most important gathering of all. As lyrical and true to life as Norris's critically acclaimed debut Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain, which won a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize and Debut of the Year at the British Book Awards, this is a compelling, emotional story of family, human frailty, and the marks that love leaves on us.

- I think the local communitys supportive.- Yeah, of like, good stuff. Bric-a-brac sales and choral singing and local elections and swingers parties, not you and me messing about with a drum kit. Joe, Ross and Ellie used to be in a band. They were pretty good too, making waves across a rugged patchwork of pubs and clubs. They even had a song on Radio 2. But that was all a long time ago and the songs, the stories, the secrets are long since buried. Time has thrown the three friends far from their younger selves. Back together for one night only to play a benefit gig in their home town, they find a community reeling from a poisoning and a pandemic. And as they rehearse the old songs, the stories and secrets must also be excavated.The Band Back Together premiered in a touring production by Farnham Maltings in March 2024.

They say that, when you start getting older. Anything you wanna be able to do, keep doing it often cos youll never get it back. I thought they meant touching your toes or running 5K, I didnt think they meant getting on trams.Ian has gone out less since he became a widower. In fact, he hasnt gone out at all, and his relationship with his daughter Lauren is suffering. But when charity volunteer Raz finds Ian in the garden wearing his late wifes dress, an unlikely friendship develops. Before long, Ian finds himself back in the local working mens club, preparing to give the performance of his life.Going Out Out is an infectiously joyous story about music, love and the courage it takes to cope with grief. It opened at HOME, Manchester, in October 2025.

LyricalDaily MailBeautifulSpectatorSkilledFinancial TimesVulnerableGuardianDeftIndependentProfoundObserverThe beginning of summer. Perhaps it crosses my mind even now while I wait for news of Amy that something is coming towards us. Like sighting the first slow swell of a wave.Years ago, in an almost accidental moment of heroism, Ed saved Amy from drowning. Now, in his thirties, he finds himself adrift. Hes been living in London for years - some of them good - but hes stuck in a relationship he cant move forward, has a job that just pays the bills, and cant shake the sense that life should mean more than this. Perhaps all Ed needs is a moment to pause. To exhale and start anew. And when he meets Amy again by chance, it seems that happiness might not be so far out of reach. But then tragedy overtakes him, and Ed must decide whether to let history and duty define his life, or whether he should push against the tide and write his own story.Filled with hope and characteristic warmth, Undercurrent is a moving and intimate portrait of love, of life and why we choose to share ours with the people we do.

The deeply moving second novel from the author of the award-winning FIVE RIVERS MET ON A WOODED PLAIN.Courageous...memorable...moving - GuardianOne of our most exciting young writers - The TimesLife-affirming, beautiful and achingly poignant - Donal RyanIsnt the life of any person made up out of the telling of two tales, after all? The whole world makes more sense if you remember that everyone has two lives, their real lives and their dreams, both stories only a tapes breadth apart from each other, impossibly divided, indivisibly close.Every year, Roberts family comes together at a rambling old house to celebrate his birthday. Aunts, uncles, distant cousins - it has been a milestone in their lives for decades. But this year Robert doesnt want to be reminded of what has happened since they last met - and nor, for quite different reasons, does his granddaughter Kate. Neither of them is sure they can face the party. But for both Robert and Kate, it may become the most important gathering of all.As lyrical and true to life as Norriss critically acclaimed debut Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain, which won a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize and Debut of the Year at the British Book Awards, this is a compelling, emotional story of family, human frailty, and the marks that love leaves on us.

A Times bestsellerWonderful...I was hooked from the first page. Its the real stuff. - Michael FraynDeeply affecting - GuardianSuperb - Mail on SundayBarney Norris is a rare and precious talent - Evening StandardThere exists in all of us a song waiting to be sung which is as heart-stopping and vertiginous as the peak of the cathedral. That is the meaning of this quiet city, where the spire soars into the blue, where rivers and stories weave into one another, where lives intertwine.One quiet evening in Salisbury, the peace is shattered by a serious car crash. At that moment, five lives collide a flower seller, a schoolboy, an army wife, a security guard, a widower all facing their own personal disasters. As one of those lives hangs in the balance, the stories of all five unwind, drawn together by connection and coincidence into a web of love, grief, disenchantment and hope that perfectly represents the joys and tragedies of small town life.Barney Norriss third novel, The Vanishing Hours, will be published in July 2019.

Shot through with compassion . . . this dreamlike, winding tale is a joy. A. L. KENNEDYMoving and unconventionally wise.Guardian________________________This was how I heard the most important story of my life, the thing that decided me, the story that determined who I was in the end.As snow begins to fall outside, two strangers meet by chance in a bar. She is trying to make sense of a life shaken by heartbreak and ruined dreams. He is on a desperate quest to find something he lost in his youth.From the blustery cliffs of Dover to the confines of a nuclear bunker; from the courtroom witness box to the West End stage, he flits from one life to another, never able to stand still.Extraordinary though his story is, the secret she is keeping is even more surprising, and will take them to a place neither of them - or you - expected.From the bestselling author of FIVE RIVERS MET ON A WOODED PLAIN comes this captivating novel about love, abandonment, and the power of stories to help us find our way in the world.________________________What readers are saying:***** I absolutely loved this book - its beautifully written, very emotional and full of wonderful flights of imagination.***** Unlike anything Ive read before.***** A deeply moving account of fragile memory and lost love.***** A completely beautiful book . . . I adored it.

Home is a moment thats quickly lost. Afterwards you can only sail through the ghost of it.The Wellspring explores the complex and shifting dynamic between a father and son, as the writer Barney Norris and the musician David Owen Norris overlay the palimpsests of their separate lives in a cycle of memories that gradually intertwine and become a concerted search for connection, belonging and home. The Wellspring opens at the Royal and Derngate, Northampton, in March 2022.

A rare duet, in which father and son rediscover a whole world through the redeeming power of art. Declan KiberdIn The Wellspring acclaimed novelist and dramatist Barney Norris conducts a conversation with father, the pianist and composer David Owen Norris quite possibly the most interesting pianist in the world (Toronto Globe and Mail) and a famous thinker/philosopher of the keyboard (Seattle Times). Norris senior is also a television and radio broadcaster who has worked with a huge range of musicians, conductors and composers in the concert hall and the studio.Divided into three parts Listening, Playing and Writing The Wellspring is the first book to explore Norriss fifty-year career and discover how his background (non-metropolitan, C of E, literary) influenced his choices and his music. The book becomes a study of the relationship between his Englishness and his work, of his inheritance and how it is projected forward into new compositions and new performance. In the process the reader encounters a fascinating world of concerts, prizes, collaborations, and inspirations, in which Norris, always open to the different, has lived. This variety includes Norriss devotion to Parry and Elgar, his musical discoveries made playing the square piano of the nineteenth century, and the opportunities resulting from the pressurized world of competitions.In addition to exploring the career of this renowned musician, the father-son conversation also reveals Barney Norriss experience of working in English theatre over the last ten years and of his practice as a novelist with a growing reputation. Their combined experience, in two fields, in two different generations, provides a thought-provoking discussion of how a place and a culture inform artistic work, and how England and Englishness have evolved during the past half century.Informative, entertaining, at times provocative, The Wellspring will become a classic investigation of creativity, of Englishness, and of the changing world.