Pat Barker
Encyclopedia
Pat Barker CBE
, FRSL (born 8 May 1943) is an English writer and novelist. She has won many awards for her fiction, which centres around themes of memory, trauma, survival and recovery. Her work is described as direct, blunt and plainspoken.
family in Thornaby-on-Tees
in the North Riding of Yorkshire
, England, on 8 May 1943. Her mother Moyra died in 2000, and her father's identity is unknown. According to The Times
, Moyra became pregnant “after a drunken night out while in the Wrens
,” and, in a climate where illegitimacy
was regarded with shame, told people that the resulting child was her sister, rather than her daughter. They lived with Barker's grandmother Alice and step-grandfather William, until her mother married and moved out when Barker was seven. Barker could have joined her mother, she told The Guardian
in 2003, but chose to stay with her grandmother "because of love of her, and because my stepfather didn't warm to me, nor me to him". Her grandparents ran a fish and chip shop which failed and the family was, she told The Times in 2007, “poor as church mice; we were living on National Assistance
– ‘on the pancrack’, as my grandmother called it”.
Barker, who says she has always been an avid reader, went on to study international history at the London School of Economics
. After graduating in 1965, she returned home to nurse her grandmother, who died in 1971. In 1969, she was introduced in a pub to David Barker
, a zoology professor and neurologist 20 years her senior, who left his marriage to live with her. They had two children together, and were married in 1978, after his divorce. Their daughter Anna Ralph is now a novelist. Barker was widowed when David died in January 2009.
in 2003, "didn't deserve to be: I was being a sensitive lady novelist, which is not what I am. There's an earthiness and bawdiness in my voice.”
Her first published novel was Union Street
, which consisted of seven interlinked stories about English working class women whose lives are circumscribed by poverty and violence. For ten years, the manuscript was rejected by publishers as too “bleak and depressing.” Barker then met novelist Angela Carter
at a writers' workshop. Carter liked the book, telling Barker “if they can't sympathise with the women you're creating, then sod their fucking luck,” and suggested she send the manuscript to feminist publisher
Virago
, who accepted it. Union Street was later made into a Hollywood film called Stanley and Iris
, starring Robert De Niro
and Jane Fonda
, but Barker says the film bears little relationship to her book. The New Statesman
hailed the novel as a "long overdue working class masterpiece," and the New York Times Book Review called it “first-rate, punchy and raunchy.” As of 2003, it remained one of Virago's top sellers.
Barker's first three novels — Union Street (1982), Blow Your House Down
(1984) and Liza's England (1986; originally published as The Century's Daughter) - depicted the lives of working class
women in Yorkshire
, and are described by BookForum magazine as “full of feeling, violent and sordid, but never exploitative or sensationalistic and rarely sentimental." Blow Your House Down portrays prostitutes living in a North of England city, who are being stalked by a serial killer
. Liza's England, described by the Sunday Times as a "modern-day masterpiece," tracks the life of a working class woman born at the dawn of the 20th century.
Therefore, she turned her attention to the First World War
, which she had always wanted to write about due to her step-grandfather's wartime experiences. These had resulted in a scar from a bayonet
wound, and he would not speak about the war. This interest resulted in what is now known as the Regeneration Trilogy
—Regeneration
(1991), The Eye in the Door
(1993), and The Ghost Road
(1995)—a set of novels which explore the history of the First World War by focusing on the aftermath of trauma. The books are an unusual blend of history and fiction, and Barker draws extensively on the writings of First World War poets and W.H.R. Rivers, an army doctor who worked with traumatized soldiers
. The main characters are based on historical figures, with the exception of Billy Prior, whom Barker invented to parallel and contrast with British soldier-poets Wilfred Owen
and Siegfried Sassoon
.
“I think the whole British psyche is suffering from the contradiction you see in Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, where the war is both terrible and never to be repeated and at the same time experiences derived from it are given enormous value,” Barker told The Guardian. “No one watches war films in quite the way the British do."
Barker told freelance journalist Wera Reusch that "I think there is a lot to be said for writing about history, because you can sometimes deal with contemporary dilemmas in a way people are more open to because it is presented in this unfamiliar guise, they don't automatically know what they think about it, whereas if you are writing about a contemporary issue on the nose, sometimes all you do is activate people's prejudices. I think the historical novel can be a backdoor into the present which is very valuable."
The Regeneration Trilogy was extremely well received by critics, with Peter Kemp of the Sunday Times describing it as “brilliant, intense and subtle," and Publishers Weekly
calling it “a triumph of an imagination at once poetic and practical." The trilogy is described by the New York Times as “a fierce meditation on the horrors of war and its psychological aftermath,” and novelist Jonathan Coe
describes it as "one of the few real masterpieces of late 20th century British fiction
." In 1995 the final book in the trilogy, Ghost Road, won the prestigious Man Booker Prize
.
prize for fiction for Union Street. In 1993 she won the Guardian First Book Award
for the Eye in the Door, and in 1995 she won the Man Booker Prize
for Ghost Road. In May 1997, Barker was awarded an honorary degree
by the Open University
as Doctor of the University. In 2000, she was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).
CBE
CBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...
, FRSL (born 8 May 1943) is an English writer and novelist. She has won many awards for her fiction, which centres around themes of memory, trauma, survival and recovery. Her work is described as direct, blunt and plainspoken.
Personal life
Barker was born to a working classWorking class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
family in Thornaby-on-Tees
Thornaby-on-Tees
Thornaby-on-Tees is a town and civil parish within the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. It is on the south bank of the River Tees, three miles southeast of Stockton-on-Tees, and four miles southwest of Middlesbrough town centre and has a...
in the North Riding of Yorkshire
North Riding of Yorkshire
The North Riding of Yorkshire was one of the three historic subdivisions of the English county of Yorkshire, alongside the East and West Ridings. From the Restoration it was used as a Lieutenancy area. The three ridings were treated as three counties for many purposes, such as having separate...
, England, on 8 May 1943. Her mother Moyra died in 2000, and her father's identity is unknown. According to The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, Moyra became pregnant “after a drunken night out while in the Wrens
Women's Royal Naval Service
The Women's Royal Naval Service was the women's branch of the Royal Navy.Members included cooks, clerks, wireless telegraphists, radar plotters, weapons analysts, range assessors, electricians and air mechanics...
,” and, in a climate where illegitimacy
Legitimacy (law)
At common law, legitimacy is the status of a child who is born to parents who are legally married to one another; and of a child who is born shortly after the parents' divorce. In canon and in civil law, the offspring of putative marriages have been considered legitimate children...
was regarded with shame, told people that the resulting child was her sister, rather than her daughter. They lived with Barker's grandmother Alice and step-grandfather William, until her mother married and moved out when Barker was seven. Barker could have joined her mother, she told The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
in 2003, but chose to stay with her grandmother "because of love of her, and because my stepfather didn't warm to me, nor me to him". Her grandparents ran a fish and chip shop which failed and the family was, she told The Times in 2007, “poor as church mice; we were living on National Assistance
National Assistance Act 1948
The National Assistance Act 1948 was an Act of Parliament passed in the United Kingdom by the Labour government of Clement Attlee.-Overview:It formally abolished the Poor Law system which had existed since the reign of Elizabeth I, and established a social safety-net for those who didn’t pay...
– ‘on the pancrack’, as my grandmother called it”.
Barker, who says she has always been an avid reader, went on to study international history at the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
. After graduating in 1965, she returned home to nurse her grandmother, who died in 1971. In 1969, she was introduced in a pub to David Barker
David Barker (zoologist)
David Barker was a United Kingdom zoologist and neurologist specialising in animal neuroanatomy. He was professor emeritus of zoology at the University of Durham and is honoured by the annual award of the David Barker Prize in Zoology...
, a zoology professor and neurologist 20 years her senior, who left his marriage to live with her. They had two children together, and were married in 1978, after his divorce. Their daughter Anna Ralph is now a novelist. Barker was widowed when David died in January 2009.
Early work
In her mid-twenties, Barker began to write fiction. Her first three novels were never published and, she told The GuardianThe Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
in 2003, "didn't deserve to be: I was being a sensitive lady novelist, which is not what I am. There's an earthiness and bawdiness in my voice.”
Her first published novel was Union Street
Union Street (novel)
Union Street is Pat Barker's first novel. It describes the lives of seven women living on Union Street and was written in 1982. It takes place in England during the 1970s. The 1990 movie Stanley & Iris is a loose adaptation of the novel....
, which consisted of seven interlinked stories about English working class women whose lives are circumscribed by poverty and violence. For ten years, the manuscript was rejected by publishers as too “bleak and depressing.” Barker then met novelist Angela Carter
Angela Carter
Angela Carter was an English novelist and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picaresque works...
at a writers' workshop. Carter liked the book, telling Barker “if they can't sympathise with the women you're creating, then sod their fucking luck,” and suggested she send the manuscript to feminist publisher
Women's writing in English
Women's writing as a discrete area of literary studies is based on the notion that the experience of women, historically, has been shaped by their gender, and so women writers by definition are a group worthy of separate study...
Virago
Virago Press
Virago is a British publishing company founded in 1973 by Carmen Callil to publish books by women writers. Both new works and reissued books by neglected authors have featured on the imprint's list....
, who accepted it. Union Street was later made into a Hollywood film called Stanley and Iris
Stanley and Iris
Stanley & Iris is a romantic drama film directed by Martin Ritt and starring Jane Fonda and Robert De Niro. The screenplay by Harriet Frank, Jr. and Irving Ravetch is loosely based on the novel Union Street by Pat Barker....
, starring Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...
and Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...
, but Barker says the film bears little relationship to her book. The New Statesman
New Statesman
New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
hailed the novel as a "long overdue working class masterpiece," and the New York Times Book Review called it “first-rate, punchy and raunchy.” As of 2003, it remained one of Virago's top sellers.
Barker's first three novels — Union Street (1982), Blow Your House Down
Blow Your House Down
Blow Your House Down is the second novel by Pat Barker. Published in 1984, the novel follows the lives of a number of prostitutes working in a northern English city at a time when a serial killer of prostitutes is haunting the area. The main focus is on two prostitute characters, Brenda and Jean,...
(1984) and Liza's England (1986; originally published as The Century's Daughter) - depicted the lives of working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
women in Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
, and are described by BookForum magazine as “full of feeling, violent and sordid, but never exploitative or sensationalistic and rarely sentimental." Blow Your House Down portrays prostitutes living in a North of England city, who are being stalked by a serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
. Liza's England, described by the Sunday Times as a "modern-day masterpiece," tracks the life of a working class woman born at the dawn of the 20th century.
Regeneration Trilogy
Following publication of Liza's England, Barker felt she “had got myself into a box where I was strongly typecast as a northern, regional, working class, feminist—label, label, label—novelist. It's not a matter so much of objecting to the labels, but you do get to a point where people are reading the labels instead of the book. And I felt I'd got to that point,” she said in 1992. She said she was tired of reviewers asking “'but uh, can she do men?' -- as though that were some kind of Everest."Therefore, she turned her attention to the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, which she had always wanted to write about due to her step-grandfather's wartime experiences. These had resulted in a scar from a bayonet
Bayonet
A bayonet is a knife, dagger, sword, or spike-shaped weapon designed to fit in, on, over or underneath the muzzle of a rifle, musket or similar weapon, effectively turning the gun into a spear...
wound, and he would not speak about the war. This interest resulted in what is now known as the Regeneration Trilogy
Regeneration Trilogy
The Regeneration Trilogy is a series of three novels by Pat Barker on the subject of the First World War.* Regeneration * The Eye in the Door * The Ghost Road...
—Regeneration
Regeneration (novel)
For the 1997 film adaptation of the novel see Regeneration .Regeneration is a prize-winning novel by Pat Barker, first published in 1991. The novel was a Booker Prize nominee and was described by the New York Times Book Review as one of the four best novels of the year in its year of publication...
(1991), The Eye in the Door
The Eye in the Door
The Eye in the Door is a novel by Pat Barker, first published in 1993, and forming the second part of the Regeneration trilogy.The Eye in the Door is set in London, beginning in mid-April, 1918, and continues the interwoven stories of Dr William Rivers, Billy Prior, and Siegfried Sassoon begun in...
(1993), and The Ghost Road
The Ghost Road
The Ghost Road is a novel by Pat Barker, first published in 1995 and winner of the Booker Prize. It is the third volume of a trilogy that follows the fortunes of shell-shocked British army officers towards the end of the First World War...
(1995)—a set of novels which explore the history of the First World War by focusing on the aftermath of trauma. The books are an unusual blend of history and fiction, and Barker draws extensively on the writings of First World War poets and W.H.R. Rivers, an army doctor who worked with traumatized soldiers
Combat stress reaction
Combat stress reaction , in the past commonly known as shell shock or battle fatigue, is a range of behaviours resulting from the stress of battle which decrease the combatant's fighting efficiency. The most common symptoms are fatigue, slower reaction times, indecision, disconnection from one's...
. The main characters are based on historical figures, with the exception of Billy Prior, whom Barker invented to parallel and contrast with British soldier-poets Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC was an English poet and soldier, one of the leading poets of the First World War...
and Siegfried Sassoon
Siegfried Sassoon
Siegfried Loraine Sassoon CBE MC was an English poet, author and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches, and satirised the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon's...
.
“I think the whole British psyche is suffering from the contradiction you see in Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, where the war is both terrible and never to be repeated and at the same time experiences derived from it are given enormous value,” Barker told The Guardian. “No one watches war films in quite the way the British do."
Barker told freelance journalist Wera Reusch that "I think there is a lot to be said for writing about history, because you can sometimes deal with contemporary dilemmas in a way people are more open to because it is presented in this unfamiliar guise, they don't automatically know what they think about it, whereas if you are writing about a contemporary issue on the nose, sometimes all you do is activate people's prejudices. I think the historical novel can be a backdoor into the present which is very valuable."
The Regeneration Trilogy was extremely well received by critics, with Peter Kemp of the Sunday Times describing it as “brilliant, intense and subtle," and Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
calling it “a triumph of an imagination at once poetic and practical." The trilogy is described by the New York Times as “a fierce meditation on the horrors of war and its psychological aftermath,” and novelist Jonathan Coe
Jonathan Coe
Jonathan Coe is an English novelist and writer. His work has an underlying preoccupation with political issues, although this serious engagement is often expressed comically in the form of satire. For example, What a Carve Up! reworks the plot of an old 1960s spoof horror film of the same name...
describes it as "one of the few real masterpieces of late 20th century British fiction
British literature
British Literature refers to literature associated with the United Kingdom, Isle of Man and Channel Islands. By far the largest part of British literature is written in the English language, but there are bodies of written works in Latin, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Scots, Cornish, Manx, Jèrriais,...
." In 1995 the final book in the trilogy, Ghost Road, won the prestigious 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...
.
Awards and recognition
In 1983, Barker won the Fawcett SocietyFawcett Society
The Fawcett Society is an organisation in the United Kingdom which campaigns for women's rights. The organisation's roots date back to 1866 when Millicent Garrett Fawcett dedicated her life to the peaceful campaign for women's suffrage....
prize for fiction for Union Street. In 1993 she won the Guardian First Book Award
Guardian First Book Award
Guardian First Book Award, issued before 1999 as Guardian Fiction Prize or Guardian Fiction Award, is awarded to new writing in fiction and non-fiction.-History:...
for the Eye in the Door, and in 1995 she won 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...
for Ghost Road. In May 1997, Barker was awarded an honorary degree
Honorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
by the Open University
Open University
The Open University is a distance learning and research university founded by Royal Charter in the United Kingdom...
as Doctor of the University. In 2000, she was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).
Books authored
- Union Street (1982)
- Blow Your House DownBlow Your House DownBlow Your House Down is the second novel by Pat Barker. Published in 1984, the novel follows the lives of a number of prostitutes working in a northern English city at a time when a serial killer of prostitutes is haunting the area. The main focus is on two prostitute characters, Brenda and Jean,...
(1984) - The Century's DaughterThe Century's DaughterThe Century's Daughter is a novel by Pat Barker, published in 1986. The novel was republished as Liza's England in 1996.The book is critical of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.-External links:*...
(also known as Liza's England; 1986) - The Man Who Wasn't ThereThe Man Who Wasn't There (novel)The Man Who Wasn't There is a novel by Pat Barker, published in 1989. It is the story of a 1950s latch-key kid and his search for a father....
(1989) - Regeneration TrilogyRegeneration TrilogyThe Regeneration Trilogy is a series of three novels by Pat Barker on the subject of the First World War.* Regeneration * The Eye in the Door * The Ghost Road...
:- RegenerationRegeneration (novel)For the 1997 film adaptation of the novel see Regeneration .Regeneration is a prize-winning novel by Pat Barker, first published in 1991. The novel was a Booker Prize nominee and was described by the New York Times Book Review as one of the four best novels of the year in its year of publication...
(1991) - The Eye in the DoorThe Eye in the DoorThe Eye in the Door is a novel by Pat Barker, first published in 1993, and forming the second part of the Regeneration trilogy.The Eye in the Door is set in London, beginning in mid-April, 1918, and continues the interwoven stories of Dr William Rivers, Billy Prior, and Siegfried Sassoon begun in...
(1993) - The Ghost RoadThe Ghost RoadThe Ghost Road is a novel by Pat Barker, first published in 1995 and winner of the Booker Prize. It is the third volume of a trilogy that follows the fortunes of shell-shocked British army officers towards the end of the First World War...
(1995)
- Regeneration
- Another WorldAnother World (novel)Another World is a novel by Pat Barker, published in 1998. The novel concerns Geordie a 101 year-old Somme veteran in the last days before his death....
(1998) - Border Crossing (2001)
- Double VisionDouble Vision (novel)Double Vision is a novel by Pat Barker, published in 2003. The Observer described the book as a "strongly written, oddly constructed new novel"....
(2003) - Life Class (2007)