Britain is a ‘bifurcated place nowadays’, says Julian Barnes

Author and patron for torture-survivor charity criticises politicians for encouraging mean spiritedness'

Julian Barnes has said Britain is a bifurcated place nowadays" and accused politicians of encouraging mean spiritedness".

Barnes, who won the Booker prize in 2011 with The Sense of an Ending, has been a patron of Freedom from Torture - a charity which provides therapeutic care to survivors of torture who seek protection in the UK - for 25 years.