Elspeth Barker (16 November 1940 – 21 April 2022) was a Scottish novelist and journalist. Born as Elspeth Langlands, she was raised in

Drumtochty Castle Drumtochty Castle is a neo-gothic style castellated mansion erected in 1812 approximately three kilometres north-west of Auchenblae, Kincardineshire, Scotland. This building stands on the southern edge of Drumtochty Forest. It was built to the ...

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially differe ...

, Scotland, where her parents ran a prep school for boys. From 1958, she read Literae Humaniores (Classics) at

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...

. Barker's only novel, ''O Caledonia'', was published in 1991. It won four awards and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize. Her edited anthology ''Loss'', about bereavement, was published in 1997, and her reviews and essays in a 2012 collection, ''Dog Days''. Her first husband was the poet George Barker by whom she had five children, including the novelist

Raffaella Barker Raffaella Flora Barker (born 24 November 1964) is an English author. Born in London, she moved when she was three and was brought up in the Norfolk countryside. She is the one of the poet George Barker's fifteen children, the eldest of the five h ...

. In 2007, she married the writer

Bill Troop Bill Troop is the principal author of "The Film Developing Cookbook",Troop, Bill and Anchell, Steve (1998) "The Film Developing Cookbook". Focal Press/Reed Elsevier, . in print continuously since 1998, and widely considered to be the standard contem ...

. Barker died at her home in Aylsham on 21 April 2022, aged 81, from health issues following a stroke.

References

1940 births 2022 deaths 20th-century British novelists 20th-century British women writers Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford People associated with Norwich University of the Arts People educated at Drumtochty Castle Preparatory School People educated at St Leonards School People from Aylsham Scottish journalists Scottish novelists Scottish women novelists Scottish women journalists {{UK-journalist-stub