Nicola Barker is an English novelist and short story writer.

Typically she 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

Isle of Sheppey

The Isle of Sheppey is an island off the northern coast of Kent, England in the Thames Estuary, some to the east of London. It has an area of . The island forms part of the local government district of Swale...

 and Canvey Island

Canvey Island

Canvey Island is a civil parish and reclaimed island in the Thames estuary in England. It is separated from the mainland of south Essex by a network of creeks...

. Her 2004 novel, Clear, is set in London during David Blaine

David Blaine

David Blaine is an American illusionist and endurance artist. He is best known for his high-profile feats of endurance, and has made his name as a performer of street and close-up magic. He has set and broken several world records...

's Above the Below 44 day fast in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in 2003.

Barker's novel Darkmans won the 2008 Hawthornden Prize

Hawthornden Prize

The Hawthornden Prize is a British literary award that was established in 1919 by Alice Warrender. Authors are awarded on the quality of their "imaginative literature" which can be written in either poetry or prose...

. Patrick Ness' Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

 review 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

Ashford, Kent

Ashford is a town in the borough of Ashford in Kent, England. In 2005 it was voted the fourth best place to live in the United Kingdom. It lies on the Great Stour river, the M20 motorway, and the South Eastern Main Line and High Speed 1 railways. Its agricultural market is one of the most...

"

Novels

• Reversed Forecast (1994)
• Small Holdings (1995)
• Wide Open (1998) (winner of the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award award, 2000)
• Five Miles from Outer Hope (2000)
• Behindlings (2002)
• Clear: A Transparent Novel (2004)
• Darkmans (2007) (Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize
  Man Booker Prize
  The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe. The winner of the Man Booker Prize is generally assured of international renown and...
  
  , 2007)
• Burley Cross Postbox Theft ( available as an iPhone app)

Collections of stories

• Love Your Enemies (1993) (winner of the David Higham Prize for Fiction
  David Higham Prize for Fiction
  The David Higham Prize for Fiction was inaugurated in 1975 to mark the 80th birthday of the late David Higham, literary agent, and was awarded annually to a citizen of the Commonwealth, Republic of Ireland, Pakistan, or South Africa for a first novel or book of short stories...
  
  )
• Heading Inland (1996)
• The Three Button Trick: Selected Stories (2001)

Quotation

'There are writers who exist to confirm people's feelings about themselves and to make them feel comforted or not alone. That's the opposite to what I do. I'm presenting people with unacceptable or hostile characters, and my desire is to make them understood.'

External links

• Burley Cross Postbox Theft iPhone App