Nicola Barker

Nicola Barker (born 30 March 1966) is an English novelist and short story writer.

Nicola Barker
Born (1966-03-30) 30 March 1966
Ely, England
OccupationNovelist
NationalityBritish
Period1994–present

Early life and education

Barker was born in Ely, Cambridgeshire, England on 30 March 1966.[1] While still young, her parents left England and settled in South Africa.[2][3]

Career

Barker typically writes about damaged or eccentric people in mundane situations, and has a fondness for bleak, isolated settings. Wide Open and Behindlings are set respectively on the Isle of Sheppey and Canvey Island. Together with Darkmans (2007), they form an informal trilogy based around the Thames Gateway.[4] Darkmans won the 2008 Hawthornden Prize. Patrick Ness's review in The Guardian described the book as "phenomenally good" despite it being a "838-page epic with little describable plot, taking place over just a few days and set in...Ashford"[5]

Her 2004 novel, Clear, is set in London during David Blaine's Above the Below 44-day fast in London in 2003.

Awards and honours

Novels
  • Reversed Forecast (1994)
  • Small Holdings (1995)
  • Wide Open (1998)
  • Five Miles from Outer Hope (2000)
  • Behindlings (2002)
  • Clear: A Transparent Novel (2004)
  • Darkmans (2007)
  • Burley Cross Postbox Theft (2010)[8]
  • The Yips (2012)
  • In the Approaches (2014)
  • The Cauliflower (2016)
  • H(a)ppy (2017)
  • I Am Sovereign (2019)
  • Elmwood (tbc)

Collections of stories
  • Love Your Enemies (1993)
  • Heading Inland (1996)
  • The Three Button Trick: Selected Stories (2001)

Short stories
  • The Free Hand (1998)
  • By Force of Will, Alone (2009)

References
  1. British Council "Nicola Barker", Literature | British Council.
  2. Kidd, James, "Nicola Barker Interview: ‘I am just a person that writes books...’", The Independent on Sunday, Arts & Books, 16-17, 1 June 2014.
  3. Kidd, James (13 June 2014). "Nicola Barker: Teetering on the brink". The New Zealand Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  4. "Huw Marsh - 'Nicola Barker's Darkmans and the vengeful tsunami of history' (Literary London Journal)". www.literarylondon.org. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
  5. Ness, Patrick: Review: Book of the week The Guardian 5 May 2007
  6. Laura Harding (15 November 2017). "Illuminated manuscript novel wins Goldsmiths Prize". Irish Independent. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
  7. Wilton, Pete, "Nicola Barker wins Goldsmiths Prize 2017", Goldsmiths, University of London, 15 November 2017.
  8. "The Hot List 2010", The Observer, 27 December 2009.
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