Laura Barton
{{short description|English journalist and writer}}
{{For multi|the Marvel Comics character|Laura Barton (character)|the Marvel Cinematic Universe character|Laura Barton (Marvel Cinematic Universe)}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2016}}
{{Infobox writer
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| name = Laura Barton
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| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1977}}
| birth_place = Newburgh, Lancashire
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| education = Worcester College, Oxford
| occupation = Journalist, writer
| subjects = Rock, pop music, women's issues
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Laura Barton (born 1977) is an English journalist and writer. She writes mainly for The Guardian, and wrote a novel, Twenty-One Locks, published in 2010.
Biography
Barton was born in and grew up in the village of Newburgh in Lancashire, and was educated at Winstanley College{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/nov/23/lady-ashton-school-wigan |title=Lady Ashton went to my school |first=Laura |last=Barton |date=23 November 2009 |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=2021-05-06}} and read for an English degree at Worcester College, Oxford{{Citation needed|date=October 2021}}. Following graduation{{Citation needed|date=October 2021}}, she began writing for The Guardian from 2000 specialising in writing features. She has also written for Q magazine, The Word, and Intelligent Life, and broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Much of her writing relates to rock and pop music, and until late 2011 she wrote a fortnightly column about music for The Guardian{{'}}s Film and Music supplement, called "Hail, Hail, Rock and Roll", as well as a weekly column on women's issues for the newspaper's G2 supplement, called "The View from a Broad".{{Cite web |last=Thwaite |first=Mark |website=Quercus Books |url=http://www.quercusbooks.co.uk/blog/interview-laura-barton/ |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20101207040709/http://www.quercusbooks.co.uk/blog/interview-laura-barton/ |title=Interview: Laura Barton |date=5 August 2010 |archive-date=7 December 2010 |access-date=2021-05-06}}
Her novel, Twenty-One Locks (2010), recounts the story of "a young small-town girl facing the biggest decision of her life." Carol Birch, reviewing it in The Independent, said "Too much grim-up-north trowel-laying mars Laura Barton's otherwise promising first novel. ... Wonderful writing - but it's hard to engage with such a passively selfish central character."{{cite news |newspaper=The Independent |last=Birch |first=Carol |author-link=Carol Birch |date=13 October 2011 |title=Twenty-One Locks, By Laura Barton |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/twenty-one-locks-laura-barton-2044396.html |access-date=26 March 2025}} Also in the Independent Rob Sharp wrote "When she lets her words flow they become rhythmic; most of them, however, are painstakingly chiselled." and finishes "I look forward to Barton's second
Barton worked with photographer Sarah Lee on a photo-essay West of West: Travels along the edge of America, which was published by Unbound (2020, {{ISBN|978-1783527694}}) and featured in The Guardian{{cite news |last1=Lee |first1=Sarah |last2=Barton |first2=Laura |title=West of West: Santa Monica pier and 'the end of America' - a photo essay |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/apr/04/west-of-west-santa-monica-pier-end-of-america-photo-essay |access-date=26 March 2025 |work=The Guardian |date=4 April 2018}} and The New York Review of Books.{{cite news |last1=Barton |first1=Laura |last2=Lee |first2=Sarah M. |title=Way Out West |url=https://www.nybooks.com/online/2020/02/22/way-out-west/ |access-date=26 March 2025 |work=The New York Review of Books |date=22 February 2020 |language=en}} Her memoir Sad Songs is to be published by Quercus books under its riverrun imprint on 1 May 2025 ({{ISBN|978-1529406948}}).
She made a three-part series Notes on Music for BBC Radio 4 in 2021, discussing the ages of seventeen in music, "happy sad songs", and Bruce Springsteen.{{cite news |last1=Sawyer |first1=Miranda |title=The week in audio: Laura Barton's Notes on Music; The Crisis – review |url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/apr/03/laura-barton-notes-on-music-review-springsteen-17-sad-songs-the-crisis-climate-change-podcast-mysteries-of-science-tumble-maddie-sound-explorers |access-date=26 March 2025 |work=The Guardian |date=3 April 2021}}
Barton has said she is working on a second novel and a non-fiction book about music. A series of short stories about Northern soul was broadcast on Radio 4 in 2011.
Barton married in 2004.{{cite web |title=TFT Meets... Laura Barton |date=27 August 2004 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100826092238/http://www.paulcarr.com/tft/people/001364.php |archivedate=26 August 2010 |url=http://www.paulcarr.com/tft/people/001364.php |website=The Friday Thing |access-date=2021-05-06}} She subsequently divorced.{{cite news |last=Barton |first=Laura |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/dec/24/laura-barton-christmas-no-longer-fits |title='The last time I went home for Christmas was five years ago. I was a terrible guest' |work=The Guardian |date=24 December 2017|access-date=2021-05-06}}
References
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External links
- [https://www.theguardian.com/profile/laurabarton Laura Barton's staff page] at The Guardian
- [https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviewers/2fbd/ Reviews by Laura Barton] at BBC Music
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Category:Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford
Category:21st-century English novelists
Category:21st-century English women writers
Category:English music journalists
Category:English women journalists
Category:English women novelists
Category:People from the Borough of West Lancashire
Category:The Guardian journalists
Category:English women columnists
Category:British writers about music