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Barker, Pat

Although Patricia Barker was to become one of Britain’s greatest contemporary novelists, her early life began fairly unremarkably. Born in Thornaby-on-Tees, Yorkshire, in May 1943, Barker was the only daughter of young single mother Moyra. Her birth is supposed to have been the result of a night of drunken revelry at the family’s local. Moyra lived with her parents until 1950 when she finally married and moved out of her family home, leaving Patricia with her grandmother and step-grandfather. Barker actively refutes claims that her mother’s behaviour was cruel or unjust, as the decision to remain in her family home was entirely her own, as she felt closer to her grandmother than to either her mother or stepfather.

After passing her regular schooling with excellent results, Barker went on to study International History at the highly selective London School of Economics before teaching Politics and History in Durham. This experience helped to establish a strong seat of knowledge and inspiration on which she could later draw when forming her uniquely gritty characters and unflinching writing style.

She began writing fiction during the late 1960s, but it was not until 1982, after several failed attempts at popular fiction, that (under the advice of friend and contemporary Angela Carter) Union Street (1982), a harsh chronicle of the lives of working-class women in the 1970s, was submitted to feminist publishers Virago. The novel won the Fawcett Society Book Prize in 1982 and won her a place in Granta magazine’s ‘20 best young British novelists’ in 1983. After the successful publishing of this first novel, Barker left her teaching job to concentrate on her writing.

Barker’s bawdy, tenacious writing style was popular among women who had been empowered by the second-wave feminism of the 1970s, and during the 1980s she published three further novels on the bleak realities of working-class life:
  • Blow Your House Down (1984) charts the relationships between several prostitutes in a large city who are threatened by a serial killer.
  • Liza’s England (1986) follows the theme of the empowered, working-class female, though it had its roots in Barker’s political studies and provides a sardonic attack on Thatcherism.
  • The Man Who Wasn’t There (1989) is about a lonely young boy’s search for his father during the 1950s. The novel is viewed by critics to have had its basis in Barker’s own fatherless childhood.
Turning her back on 1980s feminism during the next decade, Barker’s dramatic leap from working-class misery to the historic First World War series Regeneration signalled the writer’s first use of fiction based loosely around historical events and characters. In Regeneration she turns to genuine historical characters such as Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon to explore the internal relationships of men under traumatic circumstances. The trilogy, which together won her the 1993 Guardian Prize for Fiction, the 1995 Booker Prize for fiction and a CBE in 2000, is widely agreed to be based on her fascination with the experiences of her step-grandfather, who was injured at close quarters and hospitalised during the conflict. Barker proceeded to publish her further novels about the First World War, including Another World (1998), which explores the memories of a centenarian soldier in the days before he dies, and Life Class (2007), about a love triangle between a group of art students and a life-class model, and their interplaying relationships in front-line hospitals.

Barker was widowed in 2009 when her husband of 31 years, David Barker, died at the age of 86. The novel Regeneration contains a dedication to her late husband. Currently in her seventies and living in Durham, Barker continues to write, publishing Toby’s Room (2012), Noonday (2015) and The Silence of the Girls (2018).

Photo credits:
Pat Barker
www.flickr.com/photos/summonedbyfells/813196702 Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
summonedbyfells October 27, 2012
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8th May 1943

Born in Thornaby-on-Tees, Yorkshire

Barker was the only daughter of young single mother Moyra. Her birth is supposed to have been the result of a night of drunken revelry at the family’s local.
1950

Barker’s mother, Moyra, married, leaving Barker to live with her grandmother

Barker actively refutes claims that her mother’s behaviour was cruel or unjust as the decision to remain with her grandmother was entirely her own since she felt closer to her grandmother than to either her mother or stepfather.
1965

Barker studied International History at the highly selective London School of Economics before teaching Politics and History in Durham

A keen interest in history is evident in Barker’s published works.
1969

Met David Barker

The couple married in 1978 (David was already married when they met) and went on to have two children together.
1979

Barker studied on an Arvon course taught by Angela Carter

Barker’s friendship/study with Angela Carter yielded advice which helped her with the publication of her first novel, Union Street.
1982

Barker published Union Street

Barker had been writing since the 1960s, but Union Street was the first novel that she saw published. This was quickly followed by Blow Your House Down (1984), Liza’s England (1986) and The Man Who Wasn’t There (1989). All these novels focus on working-class lives and challenges.
1982

Union Street won the Fawcett Society Book Prize

Barker’s published work has been met with great acclaim.
1991–1995

Barker published The Regeneration Trilogy

The Regeneration Trilogy shifted the focus away from working-class struggles to the First World War. The trilogy was influenced by her step-grandfather’s experiences in the war, and it won her the 1993 Guardian Fiction Prize and the 1995 Booker Prize. In 2000 she was awarded the CBE.
2009

Widowed

Barker’s husband passed away in 2009. She continues to write, however.
2012

Continues to publish new works

In recent years Barker, who is currently in her seventies and living in Durham, has published Toby’s Room (2012), Noonday (2015) and The Silence of the Girls (2018). The Silence of the Girls was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, the Costa Novel Award and the Gordon Burn Prize, and won an Independent Bookshop Week Book Award in 2019. The Women of Troy is due to be released in 2021.