Audrey Lilian Barker

FRSL The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...

(13 April 1918 – 21 February 2002) was an English novelist and short story writer. She was born in St Pauls Cray,

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

and brought up in Beckenham. 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 The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...

in 1970. She was also the winner of the inaugural

Somerset Maugham Prize The Somerset Maugham Award is a British literary prize given each year by the Society of Authors. Set up by William Somerset Maugham in 1947 the awards enable young writers to enrich their work by gaining experience in foreign countries. The awa ...

in 1947, with her collection of short stories called ''Innocents''.

Gerald Murnane Gerald Murnane (born 25 February 1939) is an Australian writer, perhaps best known for his novel ''The Plains'' (1982). ''The New York Times'', in a big feature published on 27 March 2018, called him "the greatest living English-language writer ...

's novel ''Inland'' refers to her 1981 book ''Life Stories''.

Bibliography

Novels

*''Apology for a Hero'' (1950) *''A Case Examined'' (1965) *''The Middling'' (1967) *''John Brown's Body'' (1970) *''Source of Embarrassment'' (1974) *''A 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 Word 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''".

References

External links

Obituary from ''The Independent''
1918 births 2002 deaths English women novelists Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature 20th-century English novelists English short story writers British women short story writers People from Bromley 20th-century English women writers 20th-century British short story writers {{England-novelist-stub