Elspeth Barker (16 November 1940 – 21 April 2022) was a Scottish novelist and journalist.
Born as Elspeth Langlands, she was raised in Drumtochty Castle, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, where her parents ran a prep school for boys. [1] From 1958, she read Literae Humaniores (Classics) at Somerville College, Oxford. [2] Barker's only novel, O Caledonia, was published in 1991. It won four awards and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize. [3] Her edited anthology Loss, about bereavement, was published in 1997, and her reviews and essays in a 2012 collection, Dog Days. [1]
Her first husband was the poet George Barker by whom she had five children, including the novelist Raffaella Barker. [4] In 2007, she married the writer Bill Troop. [5] Barker died at her home in Aylsham on 21 April 2022, aged 81, from health issues following a stroke. [1] [6] [7]