Damian Barr

Joining us at Audible Studios is Damian Barr, British writer, columnist and playwright, who released his novel, You Will Be Safe Here, in 2019.

Barr was born in Scotland and attended Lancaster University. Barr's first article ran in The Guardian in 1996, and since then he has written for titles such as The Sunday Times and Big Issue.

Barr's first book was published in 2006 and was the first book to focus on the quarter-life crisis in the UK, titled Get It Together: How to Survive Your Quarterlife Crisis. It was inspired by his 2001-2003 column for The Times looking at graduate work and life.

Barr's second book was Maggie & Me (2013), a memoir of his childhood in Scotland, growing up during the Thatcher years, which received the Political Humour and Satire Book of the Year Award, as well as The Sunday Times Memoir of the Year.

He was elected the first ever Literary Ambassador of the Savoy, who host his Literary Salon, hosting guests such as Tracey Thorn, Adam Kay and Rose McGowan.

Barr's latest book is his first work of fiction, You Will Be Safe Here, which documents the concentration camps of the Boer War and the dangerously similar Safari training camps of the modern day.

We'll be chatting to Damian Barr about his latest work, how he found writing fiction, and the motivation for writing this book.