Annie Barnes (1903-2003) was born in Geneva. Meeting visiting German lecturer H.G. (Roger) Barnes while working for her doctorate at Berne University led her to a long and distinguished academic career. She worked at Somerville and Lady Margaret Hall before being appointed Tutor (and subsequently Fellow) in French at St Anne’s in 1947. Her distinction was recognised by the University who made her Reader in French Literature in 1966. A research career stretching from the 1920s very nearly to her death in January 2003 took her from the influence of Shakespeare on Alfred de Vigny, through Jean Leclerc, Pascal (a life-long interest and inspiration), and the Abbé de Saint-Cyran, to Proust, Péguy, and Valéry. Her intellectual dynamism and rigour, and her sparkling, distinctive personality and humour, informed decades of dedicated teaching and generated an ever-refreshed network of friends and collaborators.