A. L. Barker
Audrey Lillian Barker, born in 1918, was a notable English author recognized for her contributions to literature through short stories and novels. After receiving her education in various English secondary schools, she embarked on a career in publishing and broadcasting, working with the Amalgamated Press and later the BBC, where she served as an editor for "The Listener." Barker published her first short story collection, "Innocents: Variations on a Theme," in 1947, which garnered her the first Somerset Maugham Award. Over her literary career, she produced eleven novels and ten collections of short stories, with her work often exploring themes of isolation, communication barriers, and complex human relationships. Her novel "The Gooseboy" won the Macmillan Silver Pen Award, and her writing is noted for its supernatural and macabre imagery. Barker's characters frequently reflect societal outcasts, providing deep psychological insights that foster empathy in readers. She continued to write until her death in 2002, leaving behind a legacy that highlights the struggles of the mentally and physically ill, the lonely, and the impoverished.
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A. L. Barker
- Born: April 13, 1918
- Birthplace: St. Paul's Cray, Kent, England
- Died: February 21, 2002
- Place of death: Carshalton, Surrey, England
Biography
Audrey Lillian Barker was born in 1918, to Harry Barker and Elsie Dutton Barker. Her education consisted of attendance at various English secondary schools. While living in London in 1936, Barker worked for the Amalgamated Press. In 1947, she served as a reader for Cresset Press, and published her first short-story collection, Innocents: Variations on a Theme. Two years later, she began working for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), an employer she retained until 1978, as a secretary initially and subsequently as an editor for The Listener.
Barker numbers among her awards the Atlantic Award in Literature in 1946 and the first Somerset Maugham Award in 1947, for her Innocents: Variations on a Theme and the first Cheltenham Festival Literary Award in 1962. In 1969, her John Brown’s Body was short-listed for the Booker Prize. She received the Arts Council Award in 1970 and the South East Arts Creative Book Award in 1981. The author of eleven novels and ten collections of short stories in all, she served on the panel of judges for the Katherine Mansfield Prize in 1984. Although she much preferred writing short stories, Barker also wrote novels: The Gooseboy, the story of Doug and Dulcie Bysshe, adult twins caught between the doubleness of flesh and spirit, was awarded the Macmillan Silver Pen Award in 1986. Her final story collection was titled Submergedand published in 2002, the year of her death in Carshalton, England.
Barker’s major achievements include her short stories and novels which are well recognized for her use of often startling supernatural, macabre imagery. Recurring themes of isolation, the inability to communicate and the proximity of love and hate often appear in her work. Also well-recognized is her portrayal of characters that have trouble finding acceptance in society: the mental and physically ill, the lonely and the impoverished. In a style that is on occasion comic, Barker penetrates deeply into the psychological layers that constitute her characters’ identity and uncovers their private wants and wishes so that her readers come away enlightened and empathetic towards those less fortunate.