Elspeth Barker (16 November 1940 – 21 April 2022) was a Scottish novelist and journalist. Born as Elspeth Langlands, she was raised in Drumtochty Castle, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, where her parents ran a prep school for boys. From 1958, she read Literae Humaniores (Classics) at Somerville College, Oxford. Barker's only novel, ''O Caledonia'', was published in 1991. It won four awards and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize. Her edited anthology ''Loss'', about bereavement, was published in 1997, and her reviews and essays in a 2012 collection, ''Dog Days''. Her first husband was the poet George Barker by whom she had five children, including the novelist Raffaella Barker. In 2007, she married the writer Bill Troop. Barker died at her home in

Aylsham Aylsham ( or ) is a historic market town and civil parish on the River Bure in north Norfolk, England, nearly north of Norwich. The river rises near Melton Constable, upstream from Aylsham and continues to Great Yarmouth and the North Sea, ...

on 21 April 2022, aged 81, from health issues following a stroke.

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1940 births 2022 deaths 20th-century British novelists 20th-century British women writers Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford People associated with Norwich University of the Arts People educated at Drumtochty Castle Preparatory School People educated at St Leonards School People from Aylsham Scottish journalists Scottish novelists Scottish women novelists Scottish women journalists {{UK-journalist-stub