Includes bibliographical references (pages [245]-280) and index

.

Introduction: the dialectic and the pear tree -- 1. The battle for realism -- 2. The crisis of commitment -- 3. Art and revolution -- 4. Divided loyalties -- 5. A toast to modernism -- 6. The work of friendship -- 7. Beyond ideology -- 8. The shape of a valley

John Berger is one of the most influential thinkers and writers of postwar Europe. As a novelist, he won the Booker Prize in 1972, donating half his prize money to the Black Panthers. As a TV presenter, he changed the way we looked at art through Ways of Seeing. As a storyteller and political activist, he defended the rights and dignity of workers, migrants and the oppressed around the world. He remained a revolutionary up to his death in January 2017. In A Writer of Our Time, Joshua Sperling places Berger's life and work within the historical narrative of postwar Britain and beyond. The book explores questions that vexed a generation: the purpose of art, the nature of creative freedom, the meaning of commitment. Drawing on extensive interviews, close readings and a wealth of archival sources only recently made available, the book brings the many different faces of John Berger together and shows him as one of the most vital, and brilliant, thinkers and storytellers of our time. Provided by publisher.