Barker typically writes about damaged or eccentric people in mundane situations, and has a fondness for bleak, isolated settings. Wide Open and Behindlings are set respectively on the
Isle of Sheppey and
Canvey Island. Together with Darkmans (2007), they form an informal trilogy based around the
Thames Gateway.[4]Darkmans won the 2008
Hawthornden Prize. Patrick Ness's review in The Guardian described the book as "phenomenally good" despite it being an "838-page epic with little describable plot, taking place over just a few days and set in...
Ashford"[5]
Her 2004 novel, Clear, is set in London during
David Blaine's Above the Below 44-day fast in London in 2003.
Awards and honours
1993: PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award co-winner for Love Your Enemies