Profile
Nicola Barker
Nicola Barker was born in Ely in 1966 and spent part of her childhood in South Africa. She lives and works in east London. She was the winner of the David Higham Prize for Fiction and joint winner of the Macmillan Silver Pen Award for Love Your Enemies, her first collection of stories (1993). Her first novel Reversed Forecast was published in 1994 and a short novel Small Holdings followed in 1995. A second collection of short stories Heading Inland, for which Nicola received an Arts Council Writers’ Award, and received the 1997 John Llewellyn Rhys/Mail on Sunday Prize. Her story ‘Symbiosis’ was filmed and broadcast on BBC2; another story, ‘Dual Balls’, was commissioned for broadcast on Channel 4 and shortlisted for a BAFTA Award. Her third novel Wide Open was published in 1998, and won the English-speaking world’s biggest literary award for a single work, the IMPAC Prize. In 2000 she published another short novel, Five Miles from Outer Hope. Her fifth novel, Behindlings, was published in 2002 and the following novel, Clear, was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2004. Her novel, Darkmans, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2007 and her most recent novel The Yips has been selected for the 2012 Booker longlist. She is one of Granta’s ‘Best Young British Novelists’ of the decade.
THE YIPS
The hilarious Man Booker-longlisted novel from the author of ‘Darkmans’, Nicola Barker.
Publication date: UK 5th Jul 2012
THE YIPS [ePub edition]
![Cover of: THE YIPS [ePub edition]](http://images.harpercollins.co.uk/hcwebimages/HCCOVERS/078100/078164-FC63.jpg)
The hilarious Man Booker-longlisted novel from the author of ‘Darkmans’ and ‘The Burley Cross Postbox Theft’.
Publication date: UK 5th Jul 2012
REVERSED FORECAST
The first novel from the brilliantly unconventional Nicola Barker is a tale of gambling, allergies, music and dogs, set in some of London’s less scenic locations.
Publication date: UK 27th Oct 2011
HEADING INLAND
Heading Inland is a funny, broody, saucy collection of stories about the kind of people you sometimes meet but might prefer to ignore.
Publication date: UK 27th Oct 2011
CLEAR
Longlisted for the 2004 Man Booker Prize. A raucous, novel about the circus surrounding David Blaine’s starvation stunt at Tower Bridge, from a Granta Best of British Novelist.
Publication date: UK 27th Oct 2011
DARKMANS
Shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize, an epic novel of startling originality which confirms Nicola Barker as one of Britain's most exciting literary talents.
Publication date: UK 27th Oct 2011
BEHINDLINGS
A brilliantly funny novel from one of our most unconventional literary talents, Nicola Barker.
Publication date: UK 27th Oct 2011
FIVE MILES FROM OUTER HOPE [ePub edition]
![Cover of: FIVE MILES FROM OUTER HOPE [ePub edition]](http://images.harpercollins.co.uk/hcwebimages/HCCOVERS/076300/076330-FC63.jpg)
The sly and subversive sixth book from Nicola Barker, one of our most funny and anarchic writers.
Publication date: UK 27th Oct 2011
WIDE OPEN [ePub edition]
![Cover of: WIDE OPEN [ePub edition]](http://images.harpercollins.co.uk/hcwebimages/HCCOVERS/076300/076395-FC63.jpg)
Winner of IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2000, Wide Open is the first of Nicola Barker’s Thames Gateway novels.
Publication date: UK 27th Oct 2011
LOVE YOUR ENEMIES [ePub edition]
![Cover of: LOVE YOUR ENEMIES [ePub edition]](http://images.harpercollins.co.uk/hcwebimages/HCCOVERS/062400/062439-FC63.jpg)
From the brilliantly unconventional Nicola Barker, the short stories in ‘Love Your Enemies’ present a loving depiction of the beautiful, the grotesque and the utterly bizarre in the lives of overlooked suburban Britons.
Publication date: UK 27th Oct 2011
HEADING INLAND [ePub edition]
![Cover of: HEADING INLAND [ePub edition]](http://images.harpercollins.co.uk/hcwebimages/HCCOVERS/075100/075126-FC63.jpg)
Heading Inland is a funny, broody, saucy collection of stories about the kind of people you sometimes meet but might prefer to ignore.
Publication date: UK 27th Oct 2011
REVERSED FORECAST [ePub edition]
![Cover of: REVERSED FORECAST [ePub edition]](http://images.harpercollins.co.uk/hcwebimages/HCCOVERS/062400/062441-FC63.jpg)
The first novel from the brilliantly unconventional Nicola Barker is a tale of gambling, allergies, music and dogs, set in some of London’s less scenic locations.
Publication date: UK 27th Oct 2011
CLEAR: A Transparent Novel [ePub edition]
![Cover of: CLEAR: A Transparent Novel [ePub edition]](http://images.harpercollins.co.uk/hcwebimages/HCCOVERS/057000/057082-FC63.jpg)
Longlisted for the 2004 Man Booker Prize. A raucous, novel about the circus surrounding David Blaine’s starvation stunt at Tower Bridge, from a Granta Best of British Novelist.
Publication date: UK 27th Oct 2011
DARKMANS [ePub edition]
![Cover of: DARKMANS [ePub edition]](http://images.harpercollins.co.uk/hcwebimages/HCCOVERS/057000/057081-FC63.jpg)
Shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize, an epic novel of startling originality which confirms Nicola Barker as one of Britain's most exciting literary talents.
Publication date: UK 27th Oct 2011
LOVE YOUR ENEMIES
From the brilliantly unconventional Nicola Barker, the short stories in ‘Love Your Enemies’ present a loving depiction of the beautiful, the grotesque and the utterly bizarre in the lives of overlooked suburban Britons.
Publication date: UK 28th Apr 2011
SMALL HOLDINGS
Hilarious, poignant and frequently surreal, Small Holdings is a is a comedy of errors from a neglected corner of everyday life by the brilliantly unconventional Nicola Barker.
Publication date: UK 28th Apr 2011
WIDE OPEN
Winner of IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2000, Wide Open is the first of Nicola Barker’s Thames Gateway novels.
Publication date: UK 28th Apr 2011
FIVE MILES FROM OUTER HOPE
The sly and subversive sixth book from Nicola Barker, one of our most funny and anarchic writers.
Publication date: UK 28th Apr 2011
BURLEY CROSS POSTBOX THEFT
From the Man Booker Prize shortlisted author of Darkmans comes a comic epistolary novel of startling originality and wit.
Publication date: UK 28th Apr 2011
SMALL HOLDINGS [ePub edition]
![Cover of: SMALL HOLDINGS [ePub edition]](http://images.harpercollins.co.uk/hcwebimages/HCCOVERS/062400/062443-FC63.jpg)
Hilarious, poignant and frequently surreal, Small Holdings is a is a comedy of errors from a neglected corner of everyday life by the brilliantly unconventional Nicola Barker.
Publication date: UK 28th Apr 2011
BURLEY CROSS POSTBOX THEFT
From the award-winning author of Darkmans comes a comic epistolary novel of startling originality and wit.
Publication date: UK 29th Apr 2010
BURLEY CROSS POSTBOX THEFT [ePub edition]
![Cover of: BURLEY CROSS POSTBOX THEFT [ePub edition]](http://images.harpercollins.co.uk/hcwebimages/HCCOVERS/053100/053112-FC63.jpg)
From the Man Booker Prize shortlisted author of Darkmans comes a comic epistolary novel of startling originality and wit.
Publication date: UK 29th Apr 2010
DARKMANS
Shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize An epic novel of startling originality which confirms Nicola Barker as one of Britain's most exciting literary talents.
Publication date: UK 3rd Mar 2008
DARKMANS
From the award-winning author of ‘Clear ‘comes an epic novel of startling originality.
Publication date: UK 17th Sep 2007
CLEAR: A Transparent Novel
Longlisted for the 2004 Man Booker Prize. A raucous, exuberant novel about the outrageous circus surrounding David Blaine’s 2003 starvation stunt at Tower Bridge, from Nicola Barker, a Granta Best of British Novelist.
Publication date: UK 4th Jul 2005