A. L. Barker

Audrey Lilian Barker FRSL (13 April 1918 – 21 February 2002) was an English novelist and short story writer. She was born in St Pauls Cray, Kent and brought up in Beckenham.^[1] During her lifetime, she published ten collections of short stories and eleven novels, one of which - John Brown's Body - was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1970. She was also the winner of the inaugural Somerset Maugham Prize in 1947, with her collection of short stories called Innocents.

Bibliography

Novels

• Apology for a Hero (1950)
• A Case Examined (1965)
• The Middling (1967)
• John Brown's Body (1970)
• Source of Embarrassment (1974)
• Heavy Feather (1978)
• Relative Successes (1984)
• The Gooseboy (1987)
• The Woman Who Talked to Herself (1989)
• Zeph (1992)
• The Haunt (1999)

Short story collections

• Innocents (1947)
• Novelette, with Other Stories (1951)
• The Joy-Ride and After (1963)
• Lost Upon the Roundabouts (1964)
• Femina Real (1971)
• Life Stories (1981)
• No World of Love (1985)
• Any Excuse for a Party (1991)
• Element of Doubt (1992)
• Seduction (1994)
• Submerged (2002)

Notes

• Rebecca West quote: "I am a fanatical admirer of A. L. Barker. If you cannot read her it is your fault. You should ask your vet to put you down if you do not admire The Middling or An Occasion for Embarrassment".^[2]

References

1. A. L. Barker - Obituaries, News - The Independent
2. West, Rebecca. The Novelist's Voice. Typescript housed at the McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa.

External links

• Obituary from The Independent
• Obituary from The Guardian