Arthur & George

First edition. 8vo. Pp. [vi], 360, [2 (blank)]. Mustard-coloured decorative cloth blocked in black and cream to spine and upper cover; patterned tan and cream endpapers. Author's Note. With publisher's advertising slip to rear panel, issued in place of a dust-wrapper, priced at £17.99.

Signed by Author to title page.

Author's tenth novel. Shortlisted for the 2005 Man Booker Prize. A 2006 New York Times Notable Book of the Year. A Richard and Judy Book Club Selection. An account of the ''Great Wyrley Outrages'' and bond between half-Parsi lawyer George Edalji, falsely accused and convicted of a crime he did not commit, and Arthur Conan Doyle, who strove for years to clear Edalji's name and uncover the true culprit. Narrated in alternate points of view by its two main principals, this hybrid tale of part history, part biography and part fiction has been described by Barnes as "a contemporary novel set in the past".

Details of Conan Doyle's crusade through articles and letters in the Daily Telegraph and his "Statement of the Case against Royden Sharp" – the man he believed to be the prime suspect – which he presented to the Home Office in 1907, can be read in Doyle's Memories and Adventures (1924) as well as in The Story of Mr George Edalji (1985). Although today no more than 'a footnote in legal history', it is partially as a result of the Edalji case that the Court of Criminal Appeal was established in 1907 as a way to correct past miscarriages of justice.

Basis for the 2015 ITV commissioned three-part series of the same name starring Arsher Ali, Art Malik, and Martin Clunes as Arthur Conan Doyle. A theatrical adaptation by David Edgar was premiered by Birmingham Repertory Theatre on 19 March 2010. "Barnes's suave, elegant prose – alive here with precision, irony and humaneness – has never been used better than in this extraordinary true-life tale, which is as terrifically told as any by its hero Conan Doyle himself." –Peter Kemp, Sunday Times

[Guignery, Vanessa. The Fiction of Julian Barnes. Readers' Guides. Basingstoke [England]: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006]