Carol Mintum Barker (born 16 February 1938) is an English artist-designer, author and illustrator who is notable for her poster designs, postage stamps and book illustrations, many of them for children.

Life and career

Barker is the daughter of British artist John Rowland Barker. As a child she was evacuated to New York during World War II, but returned to Britain and attended

Bournemouth College of Art Arts University Bournemouth (abbreviated AUB) is a further and higher education university based in Poole, England, specialising in art, performance, design, and media. It was formerly known as The Arts University College at Bournemouth and T ...

whilst also studying privately at her father's studio. She went on to study painting at

Chelsea Polytechnic Chelsea College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London based in London, United Kingdom, and is a leading British art and design institution with an international reputation. It offers further and higher educati ...

and illustration at the

Central School of Arts and Crafts The Central School of Art and Design was a public school of fine and applied arts in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1896 by the London County Council as the Central School of Arts and Cr ...

under the tutelage of

Laurence Scarfe Laurence Scarfe (1914-1993) was a British artist and designer, active in the twentieth century. His work Laurence Scarfe was born in Idle, Yorkshire in 1914. He attended Shipley School of Art and later moved to London. From 1933 to 1937 he studie ...

, Merlyn Evans and Raymond Roberts. Barker became a freelance illustrator in 1958. She was married and had two sons. Her entry in the ''Dictionary of British Book Illustrators'' states "Her work, in pen and ink, watercolour, collage and wax, is decorative rather than spatial in character." As a book illustrator, Barker collaborated with many authors including John Cunliffe,

Spike Milligan Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan (16 April 1918 – 27 February 2002) was an Irish actor, comedian, writer, musician, poet, and playwright. The son of an English mother and Irish father, he was born in British Raj, British Colonial India, where h ...

and

H. E. Bates Herbert Ernest Bates (16 May 1905 – 29 January 1974), better known as H. E. Bates, was an English writer. His best-known works include ''Love for Lydia'', '' The Darling Buds of May'', and '' My Uncle Silas''. Early life H.E. Bates was ...

who wrote the prose for his children's book ''Achilles the Donkey'' around her pictures. So integral were her illustrations that in some instances she was given equal billing as a co-author on the book jackets. This can be seen on the covers of Spike Milligan's ''A Bald Twit Lion'' and H. E. Bates ''Achilles the Donkey'' series amongst others. She would go on to be nominated twice for the Kate Greenaway medal. As a graphic artist, Barker is known to have designed posters and artwork for London Transport and posters and stamps for the

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

. Her poster "Children's London" was praised by ''Modern Publicity'' magazine in 1974 as one of the best British posters of the previous year. Examples of her work can be found in the collections of the

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...

London Transport Museum The London Transport Museum (often abbreviated as the LTM) is a transport museum based in Covent Garden, London. The museum predominantly hosts exhibits relating to the heritage of London's transport, as well as conserving and explaining the h ...

The Postal Museum The Postal Museum (formerly the British Postal Museum & Archive) is a postal museum run by the Postal Heritage Trust. It began in 2004 as The British Postal Museum & Archive and opened in Central London as The Postal Museum on 28 July 2017. Si ...

and

The Science Museum The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually in 2019. Like other publicly funded ...

Selected awards

Selected exhibitions

* 1988: (November) Barker's work was exhibited at the

Barbican Centre The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhi ...

in London. It featured illustrations, drawings and photographs of her visit to a refugee camp in

Peshawar Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...

, Pakistan and to the drought-prone Indian state of

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...

whilst carrying out research for her books, ''A Question of Refugees'' and ''A Question of Hunger''. * 2017–2019: Barker's work for London Transport was selected as part of London Transport Museum's ''Poster Girls'' exhibition commemorating female graphic designers and was featured in an accompanying

BBC news BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

article.

Bibliography

Novels

Non-fiction

Illustration / graphic design

References

External links

Interviewed by Leslie Smith on BBC Radio in 1963

Artist profile at London Transport Museum

Selected works at The Postal Museum

Entry in ''Illustrators of children's books, 1744–1945''

Entry with photograph in ''Something about the author''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barker, Carol English children's book illustrators 20th-century English artists Alumni of the Central School of Art and Design Alumni of Arts University Bournemouth 1938 births Living people British women illustrators Alumni of Chelsea College of Arts 20th-century English women artists