They shared a lot. Their childhood in England, of course, but also projects, many projects. In 2013, Jane Birkin and her big brother collaborated in their own way in the book Jane & Serge, a Family album. He had taken the photographs, she had written the introduction. In 2022, the duo repeats the artistic feat with a new intimate family album, which will be released on September 28 by Albin Michel editions.
Aged 76 and 75, Jane and Andrew Birkin have lived through very beautiful things, but also misfortunes. They have in particular a common experience, undoubtedly the most terrible. The singer lost, as you know, her daughter Kate Barry in 2013. Her big brother, too, watched helplessly as a child died, her son Alexander, known as Anno, who died at the age of 20, in 2001, in a road accident. This emotional chasm he crossed, the director agreed to address in the pages of the magazine Paris Match.
Three years of roller coaster, with very highs and very lows
After losing his Alexander, Andrew Birkin lived “three years of roller coaster, with very highs and very lows“.”Then you stabilize“, he says. To pay homage to him, in his own way, he created a charitable foundation in Africa and published the thousands of sheets of poetry written by his son, bound in a collection that he still sells by mail order. “It’s a way to revive it for the atheist that I amadmits Andrew. I’m not nostalgic, maybe melancholy. Jane too, but isn’t that the case for all families?“
A few years later, Andrew Birkin lost a niece. Kate Barry, professional photographer, fruit of the love of Jane Birkin and John Barry, died on December 11, 2013 after falling from her apartment, located on the 4th floor, at 5 rue Claude-Chahu in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The cause of this tragedy has never been revealed, but the members of his family firmly refuse the hypothesis of suicide…
Find the full interview with Andrew Birkin in the magazine Paris Matchno. 3830, of September 29, 2022.