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]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Elspeth Barker obituary". The Times. London. 27 April 2022. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
  2. ↑ "Elspeth Barker: Prize-winning author". Somerville, University of Oxford. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
  3. ↑ O Caledonia, listing at A. M. Heath
  4. ↑ Fraser, Robert (2001). The Chameleon Poet, A Life of George Barker. London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0-224-06242-5.
  5. ↑ Evening Standard, 21 December 2007, p. 15.
  6. ↑ "Family Notices". Eastern Daily Press. 26 April 2022. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
  7. ↑ Risen, Clay (19 May 2022). "Elspeth Barker, Author of a Single Beloved Novel, Dies at 81". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
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