A. L. Barker

Nick Turner (University of Salford)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of York), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

Born 13 Apr 1918
Died 21 Feb 2002
Activity 1938-2002

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Novelist
Story-writer

Resources

Barker's Works

Save to Bookshelf

Audrey Lilian Barker was born in Kent in 1918. She left school at 16 as her father, a railway clerk, was not in favour of full-time education. She was sent to work in a clock-making firm, and was then a secretary in London offices and a junior sub-editor for the Amalgamated Press. During the Second World War she worked with the Land Army and the National Fire Service; after the war she began writing for the BBC.

Her first work, the short story collection Innocents, was published in 1947; it won the first ever Somerset Maugham Award. Barker continued with jobs as publisher’s reader for Cresset Press, followed by three decades at the BBC where she was a subeditor on the Listener for five years, until she retired in 1978. She lived for most of her life in Surrey with her friend Dorothy

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1252 words

Citation: Turner, Nick. "A. L. Barker". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 July 2014 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=257, accessed 26 November 2024.]