Elspeth Barker
{{Short description|Scottish novelist and journalist (1940–2022)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2017}}
Elspeth Barker (16 November 1940 – 21 April 2022) was a Scottish novelist and journalist whose gothic novel O Caledonia became a cult classic, known for its combination of detailed imagery of Scotland and its ironic dark humour.BBC Sounds. O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0f1jz6z. Retrieved Nov. 16, 2024.Lucy Scholes. “Step aside, cocks – why hens should rule the literary roost” The Telegraph. 03 November 2023. Retrieved Nov. 16, 2024.{{Cite news |last=Pringle |first=Alexandra |date=2022-05-03 |title=Elspeth Barker obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/may/03/elspeth-barker-obituary |access-date=2025-05-10 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}
Early life and education
Elspeth Langlands was born in Edinburgh and raised in Drumtochty Castle, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, where her parents ran a prep school for boys.{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/elspeth-barker-obituary-svsb8lnpg|title=Elspeth Barker obituary|work=The Times|location=London|date=27 April 2022|access-date=27 April 2022|url-access=subscription}} From 1958, she read Literae Humaniores (Classics) at Somerville College, Oxford.{{cite web|url=https://www.some.ox.ac.uk/eminent/elspeth-barker/|title=Elspeth Barker: Prize-winning author|website=Somerville, University of Oxford|date=9 June 2021 |access-date=27 April 2022}}
Career
As a journalist, Barker wrote features and reviews for The Independent, The Observer, The Sunday Times, the London Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement and The Guardian. She taught creative writing at universities in the UK, Europe and the US, also holding a position as a Visiting Professor of Fiction at Kansas University. Barker served as a judge for the McKitterick and Sagittarius literary prizes.{{Cite web |date=2021-06-09 |title=Elspeth Barker |url=https://www.some.ox.ac.uk/eminent/elspeth-barker/ |access-date=2024-11-14 |website=Somerville College Oxford |language=en-GB}}
Barker's only novel, O Caledonia, was published in 1991. It won four awards, including the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize,{{Cite news |last= |first= |date=2022-05-03 |title=Elspeth Barker, award-winning writer who enjoyed a rowdy and exhilarating marriage to the poet George Barker – obituary |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2022/05/03/elspeth-barker-award-winning-writer-enjoyed-rowdy-exhilarating/ |access-date=2024-11-14 |work=The Telegraph |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}} given by the Royal Society of Literature to the best regional novel published by an author from the United Kingdom. It was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize.{{Cite web |title=O Caledonia |url=https://amheath.com/books/o-caledonia |access-date=2024-11-14 |website=amheath.com |language=en-GB}} Set in the 1950s, the novel traces the coming of age of a misfit teen, starting with her murder, and then tracing her life up to that point. Early coverage in the London Review of Books noted that the "enjoyable squib of a novel gives us Janet's voice, sharp and satirical as the Aberdeenshire winds, making its own weird and discomforting contribution to the portrayal of modern Scotland".{{Cite news |last=Parrinder |first=Patrick |date=1991-11-07 |title=Auchnasaugh |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v13/n21/patrick-parrinder/auchnasaugh |access-date=2024-11-14 |work=London Review of Books |language=en |volume=13 |issue=21 |issn=0260-9592}} Kirkus Reviews commented on its “Brontëan intensity and Gothic nastiness” and “beautifully lyrical evocations of place and emotion.”{{cite magazine |author= |date= 1 September 1992|title= O Caledonia
|url= https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/elspeth-barker/o-caledonia/|magazine= Kirkus Reviews |access-date= 26 December 2024}}
Upon its re-release marking the book's 30th anniversary, the novel was praised as "a forgotten gothic masterpiece,"{{Cite web |last=Reid |first=Melanie |date=2022-08-15 |title=Rereading: O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker review — a forgotten gothic masterpiece |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/o-caledonia-by-elspeth-barker-review-a-treasure-of-transgression-xkm0t8j9h |access-date=2024-11-14 |website=The Times |language=en}} "a modern Scottish classic",{{Cite web |last=O'Farrell |first=Maggie |date=2022-09-20 |title=Maggie O'Farrell on Elspeth Barker's Modern Scottish Classic, O Caledonia |url=https://lithub.com/maggie-ofarrell-on-elspeth-barkers-modern-scottish-classic-o-caledonia/ |access-date=2024-11-14 |website=Literary Hub |language=en-US}} and praised for prose where "the language sings." {{Cite web |last=Crowe |first=Thomas |title=Novel is a lyrical trip to the Scottish Highlands |url=https://smokymountainnews.com/arts/item/37463-novel-is-a-lyrical-trip-to-the-scottish-highlands |access-date=2024-11-14 |website=smokymountainnews.com |language=en-gb}} A 2023 review in The Economist noted that the heroine's "obstinate individuality is thrilling today, when teenagers' need to fit in seems ever more acute and their foibles are constantly displayed on social media." {{Cite news |title="O Caledonia" teaches girls how to grow up |url=https://www.economist.com/culture/2023/01/19/o-caledonia-teaches-girls-how-to-grow-up |access-date=2024-11-14 |newspaper=The Economist |issn=0013-0613}} An eight-part adaptation of the novel was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2023.{{Cite web |title=BBC Radio 4 - O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0f1jz6z |access-date=2024-11-14 |website=BBC |language=en-GB}}
Barker edited Loss, an anthology about bereavement, published in 1997. Her reviews and essays appeared in a 2012 collection, Dog Days.{{Cite news |last=Taylor |first=DJ |date=30 October 2012 |title=Dog Days: Selected Writings, By Elspeth Barker |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/dog-days-selected-writings-by-elspeth-barker-8231517.html |work=The Independent}} Another collection, Notes from the Henhouse: On Marrying a Poet, Raising Children and Chickens, and Writing, was published posthumously in 2024.{{Cite news |last=Jacobs |first=Alexandra |date=10 March 2024 |title=Feathers Fly When Visiting This 'Henhouse' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/10/books/review/notes-from-the-henhouse-elspeth-barker.html |access-date=14 November 2024 |work=The New York Times}}{{Cite web |title=NOTES FROM THE HENHOUSE |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/elspeth-barker/notes-henhouse/ |website=Kirkus Reviews}}{{Cite web |date= |title=Notes from the Henhouse: On Marrying a Poet, Raising Children and Chicken, and Writing by Elspeth Barker |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781668022153 |access-date=2024-11-14 |website=Publishers Weekly}}
Personal life and death
Her first husband was the poet George Barker, with whom she had five children, including the novelist Raffaella Barker.Fraser, Robert (2001). The Chameleon Poet, A Life of George Barker. London: Jonathan Cape. {{ISBN|0-224-06242-5}}. In 2007, she married the writer Bill Troop.Evening Standard, 21 December 2007, p. 15. Her portrait was painted by UK artist Terence McKenna.{{Cite web |date=2020-01-20 |title=Notes On The Portraits |url=https://terencemckennaportraits.com/notesontheportraits/ |access-date=2024-11-14 |website=terencemckennaportraits.com |language=en-GB}} Barker died at her home in Aylsham on 21 April 2022, aged 81, from health issues following a stroke.{{cite news |title=Family Notices |url=https://www.edp24.co.uk/family-notices/in-memoriam/elspeth-barker-nee-langlands-424841 |access-date=27 April 2022 |work=Eastern Daily Press |date=26 April 2022 |language=en-UK}}{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/19/books/elspeth-barker-dead.html|title = Elspeth Barker, Author of a Single Beloved Novel, Dies at 81|work = The New York Times|date = 19 May 2022|accessdate = 19 May 2022|last = Risen|first = Clay|url-access = limited}}
References
{{reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barker, Elspeth}}
Category:20th-century Scottish novelists
Category:20th-century Scottish women writers
Category:Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford
Category:People associated with Norwich University of the Arts
Category:People educated at Drumtochty Castle Preparatory School
Category:People educated at St Leonards School