Nicola Barker's exuberant novels here receive the scholarly attention they deserve in a collection of essays which moves chronologically through her oeuvre. The chapters are broad-ranging, placing Barker's work in its contemporary context and collectively making a convincing case for her importance as one of our most inventive novelists. Contents Foreword Nicola Barker The Barkeresque Mode: An Introduction Berthold Schoene Indie Style: Reversed Forecast and a Turn-of-the-Century Aesthetic Ben Masters 'Temporary People': Wide Open as an Island Narrative Daniel Marc Janes 'You grew up in this shithole, then?': Literary Geographics and the Thames Gateway Series Len Platt 'The Pair of Opposites Paradox': Ambivalence, Destabilization and Resistance in Five Miles from Outer Hope Ginette Carpenter 'Woah there a moment. Time out!': Slowing Down in Clear: A Transparent Novel Beccy Kennedy Beneath the Thin Veneer of the Modern: Medievalism in Darkmans Christopher Vardy Burley Cross Postbox Theft as Comedy Huw Marsh 'Tuning into My "Awareness Continuum"': Optimized Attention in The Yips Alice Bennett Exuberant Narration as Metaphysical Currency in In the Approaches Berthold Schoene The Pursuit of Happiness in H(A)PPY, or What a Difference an (A) Makes Eleanor Byrne Notes on Contributors Index
Spurting with kinetic energy, nasty wit, and kindness to animals, Wesley ought to be a star. Or so it seems to the "Behindlings" -- followers who nip at his heels, turn up everywhere he goes, and lie in wait for him around every corner. They skulk through the dreary streets of their tiny English town, gathering their own scabby intentions, irritating habits, and weird manners, burying all differences in the common pursuit of their true prize, their Wesley. In Behindlings, the inimitable and ungovernable Nicola Barker takes her most compelling character to date, gives him his head and her novel, and sees him run off with her readers.
On September 5, 2003, illusionist David Blaine entered a small Perspex box adjacent to London's Thames River and began starving himself. Forty-four days later, on October 19, he left the box, fifty pounds lighter. That much, at least, is clear. And the rest? The crowds? The chaos? The hype? The rage? The fights? The lust? The filth? The bullshit? The hypocrisy? Nicola Barker fearlessly crams all that and more into this ribald and outrageous peep show of a novel, her most irreverent, caustic, up-to-the-minute work yet, laying bare the heart of our contemporary world, a world of illusion, delusion, celebrity, and hunger.
Wide Open' is about stripping off layers of prejudice and lies, about the possibility of redemption, about laying bare the truth. It is also about coming to terms with the past, and the fantasies people construct to protect their inner selves.
Nicola Barker weaves humor and tragedy through this fresh and original collection, as her characters struggle to find love, independence, and fulfillment in this new addition to the Ecco Art of the Story series Nicola Barker's collection of her nineteen most brilliant stories exemplifies her ability to create daring, witty, and dynamic characters, all their idiosyncracies intact. Barker's stories often use wordplay and humor to stretch the boundaries of metaphor and reality as the outrageously original plots unfold. Through her confident and clever style, these short stories sling Barker to the forefront of fiction writing, as she is reminiscent of Martin Amis, Julian Barnes, and Margaret Atwood. The collection begins with a smart tale of a teenage girl whose obsession with the size of her nose dangerously compromises her relationships with her friends and her family. "Inside Information" is a pun of a title, describing how the protagonist's unborn fetus is the only one able to reform his mother's compulsive shoplifting by pulling the ultimate prank. "G-String" and "Symbiosis: Class Cestoda" detail women who gain self-esteem, albeit through quirky methods, despite the cowardly men who try to suppress them. The title story, "Three Button Trick," is about a man who deliberately buttons his duffel coat incorrectly to attract sympathetic females. Carrie falls for this trick, and it takes twenty-one years, a curious friend, and an eighty-three-year-old widower for her to realize her mistake. Wesley is the protagonist of a three-part collection, "Blisters," "Braces," and "Mr. Lippy" who, traumatized by two unfortunate incidents as a young boy, is an eccentric obsessed with freedom and the sea. Barker skillfully intertwines humor with despair to stimulate any reader's interest; she taps into the psyches of her characters to create an authentic, original, and highly enjoyable read. The Three Button Trick and Other Stories is a resonant, audacious volume from a writer of immense talent and originality.
2006 is a foreign country; they do things differently there. Tiger Woods' reputation is entirely untarnished and the English Defence League does not exist yet. Storm-clouds of a different kind are gathering above the bar of Luton's less than exclusive Thistle Hotel. Among those caught up in the unfolding drama are a man who's had cancer seven times, a woman priest with an unruly fringe, the troubled family of a notorious local fascist, an interfering barmaid with three E's at A-level but a PhD in bullshit, a free-thinking Muslim sex therapist and his considerably more pious wife. But at the heart of every intrigue and the bottom of every mystery is the repugnantly charismatic Stuart Ransom – a golfer in free-fall. Nicola Barker's The Yips is at once a historical novel of the pre-Twitter moment, the filthiest state-of-the-nation novel since Martin Amis' Money and the most flamboyant piece of comic fiction ever to be set in Luton.
Heading Inland is a funny, broody, saucy collection of stories about the kind of people you sometimes meet but might prefer to ignore. Barker creates a wonderfully fantastical and unimaginable world: an unborn baby escapes an unsuitable mother through a secret belly-button zip; a wayward and yet enigmatic man attempts to rescue eels from an East End pie shop; a young woman discusses her fascination in other women's breasts; a boy with his inside organs back to front desperately seeks attention; and a bitter old woman becomes bent on war with a tramp. This collection confirms Nicola Barker as one of the most versatile and original writers of her generation with a brilliant unconventional imagination she creates a new world that sparkles with dark humour.
Love Your Enemies' is a collection of ten stories about people trying to find beauty in adverse circumstances, from a 16-year-old North Londoner whose nose is too big to a lonely woman who meets a satyr in her kitchen.
*WINNER OF THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZE 2017* *SHORTLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZE 2018* *LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2018* A GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR A TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR AN INDEPENDENT BOOK OF THE YEAR From the internationally acclaimed, Man Booker-shortlisted Nicola Barker comes a new novel, a post-post apocalyptic story that overflows with pure creative talent. Imagine a perfect world where everything is known, where everything is open, where there can be no doubt, no hatred, no poverty, no greed. Imagine a System which both nurtures and protects. A Community which nourishes and sustains. An infinite world. A world without sickness, without death. A world without God. A world without fear. Could you...might you be happy there? H(A)PPY is a post-post apocalyptic Alice in Wonderland, a story which tells itself and then consumes itself. It's a place where language glows, where words buzz and sparkle and finally implode. It's a novel which twists and writhes with all the terrifying precision of a tiny fish in an Escher lithograph – a book where the mere telling of a story is the end of certainty.
One of Britain's most offbeat literary writers, Nicola Barker has beenpraised on both sides of the Atlantic as "a rare writing talent" (TimeOut London) whose "style is fast, funny, profound, and sharp" (Newsday).Barker's new novel, BEHINDLINGS is an extraordinarily singular creationthat defies easy classification--an audaciously conceived and keenly observedsatire that skewers the absurdity of modern celebrity-driven culture and thefate of the individual in our increasingly homogeneous world. The "Behindlings" are a strange, cult-like group of haplessoddballs who have made it their life's work to follow a fellow named Wesleyeverywhere he goes. And they have made it their business to know everything theycan about Wesley--his likes and dislikes, his habits and quirks. But while thesefollowers pride themselves on knowing their quarry's every move, they seem tohave trouble agreeing on exactly what it is that makes Wesley tick. Wesley,meanwhile, is fully aware that he is being followed--in fact it is he who coinedthe term "behindling"--and he both relishes and regrets the attention: They were a bane. Yes. A bane. But only so long as they followed him (andthis had to be some kind of compensation), only so long as they stalked,surveyed, trailed, pursued, could he truly depend upon his own safety. Theywere his witnesses. Unwitting? Certainly. Witless? Invariably. But they were his witnesses. And Wesley knew (better, perhaps, thananybody) that he was a man who desperately needed to be watch. Like a modern-day Defoe, Wesley ventures through the English countryside,researching a walking guide to the British Isles. His wandering brings him--andthe Behindlings--to Canvey Island. This questionable itinerary constitutes akind of "return to the scene of the crime," because Katherine Turpin,a woman whom Wesley has slandered in his book, lives in Canvey. The Behindlingstry to puzzle out Wesley's motive, particularly the unmitigated boldness of hisdesire to become Katherine's lodger. Among the group there is a new follower, Jo Bean, who displays moresingle-mindedness than a Behindling should possess. Jo seems more interested infollowing her own agenda, an agenda that includes confronting Katherine. Whenshe dares to defy the accepted order of things, though, trouble begins to brew.And when Arthur, Wesley's quasi-doppelganger cum pursuer, arrives in Canvey,things get even more complicated. While there is a short list of writers to whom Nicola Barker might becompared--writers as diverse as Samuel Becket, Thomas Pynchon, David FosterWallace, and Terry Pratchett--she is clearly an author with a thoroughlydistinctive voice and weirdly compelling imagination. Her wholly original,rakish work has already gained her widespread critical and fan attention in theU.K. BEHINDLINGS is the literary achievement that is sure to widen herfollowing among adventurous readers in this country as well.
Two novels from Nicola Barker, published together in a single volume. ‘Small Holdings’: it’s all go in a little oasis of nature, in this stirring tale of subterfuge among the shrubbery – plus ‘Reversed Forecast’, the prize-winning first novel from England’s greatest female comic novelist.
“Hilarious and erudite, spooky and unconventional, Darkmans is a dazzling achievement.” — Washington Post Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Darkmans is an exhilarating, extraordinary examination of the ways in which history can play jokes on us all... If History is just a sick joke which keeps on repeating itself, then who exactly might be telling it, and why? Could it be John Scogin, Edward IV's infamous court jester, whose favorite pastime was to burn people alive—for a laugh? Or could it be Andrew Boarde, Henry VIII's physician, who kindly wrote John Scogin's biography? Or could it be a tiny Kurd called Gaffar whose days are blighted by an unspeakable terror of–uh–salad? Or a beautiful, bulimic harpy with ridiculously weak bones? Or a man who guards Beckley Woods with a Samurai sword and a pregnant terrier? Darkmans is a very modern book, set in Ashford [a ridiculously modern town], about two very old-fashioned subjects: love and jealousy. It's also a book about invasion, obsession, displacement and possession, about comedy, art, prescription drugs and chiropody. And the main character? The past, which creeps up on the present and whispers something quite dark—quite unspeakable—into its ear. The third of Nicola Barker's narratives of the Thames Gateway, Darkmans is an epic novel of startling originality.
An instant classic of teenage self-discovery by prize-winning Nicola Barker, an "anarchic and lovingly perverse writer" (Ali Smith) Summer, 1981. Medve, sixteen years old and six foot three in her crocheted stockings, is marooned in a semi-derelict hotel on a tiny island off the coast of Devon, England. There's nothing to do but paint novelty mugs, dream of literary murders, and despair of her gothically unprepossessing family--including Mo, her sex toy-inventing mother; Poodle, her shamefully flat-chested sister; and four-year-old Feely, who wants to grow up to be a bulimic. Until one day a ginger-headed stranger arrives . . . One of our most enjoyably unconventional contemporary writers, Nicola Barker, roots out the darkly surreal in a forgotten corner of the world. Five Miles from Outer Hope is a startling, luminous book, and Medve's voice speaks bluntly from the heart, with results that are original and poignant.
Reading other people's letters always provides a guilty pleasure. There's no such joy for two West Yorkshire policemen. They contemplate 27 letters with the task of solving a crime: the shocking attack, just before Christmas, on a post box in the village of Burley Cross.
Nicola Barker's exuberant novels here receive the scholarly attention they deserve in a collection of essays which moves chronologically through her oeuvre. The chapters are broad-ranging, placing Barker's work in its contemporary context and collectively making a convincing case for her importance as one of our most inventive novelists. Contents Foreword Nicola Barker The Barkeresque Mode: An Introduction Berthold Schoene Indie Style: Reversed Forecast and a Turn-of-the-Century Aesthetic Ben Masters 'Temporary People': Wide Open as an Island Narrative Daniel Marc Janes 'You grew up in this shithole, then?': Literary Geographics and the Thames Gateway Series Len Platt 'The Pair of Opposites Paradox': Ambivalence, Destabilization and Resistance in Five Miles from Outer Hope Ginette Carpenter 'Woah there a moment. Time out!': Slowing Down in Clear: A Transparent Novel Beccy Kennedy Beneath the Thin Veneer of the Modern: Medievalism in Darkmans Christopher Vardy Burley Cross Postbox Theft as Comedy Huw Marsh 'Tuning into My "Awareness Continuum"': Optimized Attention in The Yips Alice Bennett Exuberant Narration as Metaphysical Currency in In the Approaches Berthold Schoene The Pursuit of Happiness in H(A)PPY, or What a Difference an (A) Makes Eleanor Byrne Notes on Contributors Index
Not the Marrying Kind is a new and comprehensive exploration of the contemporary same-sex marriage debates in several jurisdictions including Australia, Canada, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. It departs from much of the existing scholarship on same-sex marriage, which argues either for or against marriage for same-sex couples. Instead, this book begins from a critical analysis of the institution of marriage itself (as well as separate forms of relationship recognition, such as civil partnership, PaCS, domestic partnership) and asks whether and how feminist critiques of marriage might be applied specifically to same-sex marriage. In doing this, the author combines the theories of second wave feminism with insights from contemporary queer theory.
We live with the idea of sin every day – from the greatest transgressions to the tiniest misdemeanours. But surely the concept was invented for an age where divine retribution and eternal punishment dominated the collective consciousness? In this lively collection of new writing, Nicola Barker, Dylan Evans, David Flusfeder, Todd McEwen, Martin Rowson, John Sutherland and Ali Smith go head to head with the capital vices to explore what we really mean when we talk about sin. The resulting mixture of erudite and playful essays and startling new fiction might not make you a better person, but it will certainly give you pause for thought when you’ re next laying the law down or – heaven forfend – about to do something beyond the pale yourself.
The prize-winning first novel from England's greatest female comic novelist. 'Barker is adept at manipulating complicated groups of characters, knitting their lives together adroitly and watching them interconnect.' Jonathan Coe, Daily Mail A reversed forecast is a hedged bet which is still a long shot. Reversed Forecast is a novel of gambling and allergies, music and dogs, set in some of London's less scenic locations. Its characters select each other and try or don't try to make winning combinations. But, as Ruby, this story's soft-centred heroine, observes: 'Losing, that's the whole point of the gamble.
This book analyzes the relation between print cultures and eighteenth-century literary and political practices and, identifying Queen Anne's England as a crucial moment in the public life of gossip, offers readings of key texts that demonstrate how gossip's interpretative strategies shaped readers' participation in the literary and public spheres.
In vivo magnetic resonance spectrosopy (MRS) is increasingly being used in the clinical setting, particularly for neurological disorders. Clinical MR Spectroscopy – Techniques and Applications explains both the underlying physical principles of MRS and provides a perceptive review of clinical MRS applications. Topics covered include an introduction to MRS physics, information content of spectra from different organ systems, spectral analysis methods, recommended protocols and localization techniques, and normal age- and region-related spectral variations in the brain. Clinical applications in the brain are discussed for brain tumors, hypoxic and ischemic injury, infectious, inflammatory and demyelinating diseases, epilepsy, neurodegenerative disorders, trauma and metabolic diseases. Outside of the brain, techniques and applications are discussed for MRS in the musculosketal system, breast and prostate. Written by leading MRS experts, this is an invaluable guide for anyone interested in in vivo MRS, including radiologists, neurologists, neurosurgeons, oncologists and medical researchers.
A comedy of errors featuring a mixture of quirky characters. A group of gardeners in a park in Palmers Green, North London, find themselves in crisis as an important meeting with the council looms. The author's collection of stories, Love Your Enemies, won the David Higham Prize for Fiction.
Root-lesion nematodes of the genus Pratylenchus are recognized worldwide as one of the major constraints of crop of primary economic importance including vegetables, and many small and fruit trees. Pratylenchus spp. rank third behind root-knot and cyst nematodes as the nematodes of greatest economic impact.
Magdalene is a mob-connected madam. Tommy Flynn is the hitman who loves her. And when they're framed for the murder of a rival crime boss’s favorite son, Magdalene fears the sins of her past have come back to haunt her. After spending half a lifetime in a seamy underworld where love is for sale and men worship at the altar of sex and greed, claiming sanctuary in a cathedral is the last thing she wants to do - and the only chance she has to find out who set her up. With all clues pointing to Magdalene's ex-lover, a working girl called Lola, the legendary madam is reluctant to trust Tommy, a smooth-talking hired gun, and risk being burned again. But as time grows short and secrets are revealed, Magdalene will have to look into the dark places inside herself if she is to catch a killer and survive with body and soul intact. In the corrupt city of Crawley, Massachusetts, passion, crime and religion collide in this steamy, neo-noir work of romantic suspense.
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