Pat Barker author page

Pat Barker biography

Pat Barker is a British novelist known for her works exploring themes of memory, trauma, and war. She studied international history at the London School of Economics. Barker’s early novels, including Union Street (1982), focus on working-class women in northern England. Her writing often addresses social issues and the psychological effects of conflict.

Barker is widely recognised for the Regeneration Trilogy, which comprises Regeneration (1991), The Eye in the Door (1993), and The Ghost Road (1995). These novels are set during the First World War and feature historical figures such as the poet Siegfried Sassoon and psychiatrist W. H. R. Rivers. The trilogy examines the impact of war on soldiers’ mental health and the changing attitudes towards trauma and treatment during the early twentieth century.

In 1995, Barker was awarded the Booker Prize for The Ghost Road. She has continued to write novels that revisit historical events and figures, including Life Class (2007) and Toby’s Room (2012), both of which return to the subject of the First World War. More recently, Barker has reimagined classical myths from a contemporary perspective, as seen in The Silence of the Girls (2018), which retells the story of the Iliad from the viewpoint of Briseis.

Barker’s work has received critical recognition for its exploration of history, gender, and the psychological effects of violence. In 2018, her novel The Silence of the Girls was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction.