
Anthony Barnett’s
Notes On Now
Berger Lives On
On 5 November 2026, John Berger will be 100. Technically, he died nine years ago. But an explosion of his writing is being published and republished around the world, including for the first time in Armenian, the 50th language his work will have been translated into.
Verso will be launching new editions of his books in London, and the New York Review of Books in New York. From Lisbon to Beijing, on stage and screen, in print and podcast, Berger will be alive.
I have just had the privilege of reading a near final manuscript of Tom Overton’s stunning biography of Berger which Penguin is planning to publish on the anniversary. This too will bring him back to life in a new way. I can’t say more.
How best to describe him? The New York Review of Books website says “storyteller, essayist, screenwriter, dramatist, and critic”, and adds, “one of the most internationally influential writers of the last 50 years”. You can throw in ‘philosopher’ as well. But none of these are sufficient.
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