NOTHING TO BE FRIGHTENED OF

Julian Barnes (Jonathan Cape, £17.99)

Perhaps this book should come with the health warning: "Could take hours off your life", for it is certainly not an easy read. At one point, Barnes points out to his readers that they might die before him, so I vowed to finish his musings on death even if it killed me.

"We may both be alive now," he points out, "But you could die before me. Had you thought of that?

"Sorry to bring it up, but it is a possibility, at least for a few more years. In which case, my condolences to your nearest and dearest."

The author has succeeded in writing an interesting book about one of life's taboo subjects, but I found the absence of chapter headings and a more linear structure slightly demoralising.

Barnes takes a detailed, intelligent look at the subject of death, fear of death, and how fellow writers have prepared for their own last moments.

And he interweaves these philosophical musings with his own family memoirs, placing him at times in Richard Dawkins's territory.

Barnes discusses how his own parents, who lived in Oxfordshire, died, and how he and his brother reacted to their deaths. While these remain the most interesting sections of the book, there are not enough of them.

Why could we not find out more about Barnes and his childhood relationship with his brother, who for many years has been a philosophy tutor?

While I was quite interested in Barnes's research into the French writer Jules Renard, I really wanted to know more about Barnes and his books, and I would like to think that the author might one day have a proper go at writing his memoirs.

It might well make a far more entertaining read than this pit-gazing epic.

Julian Barnes will be at the Oxford Literary Festival on April 6.