Pat Barker

1943–

English novelist whose fiction centres on memory, trauma and survival. Born in Thornaby-on-Tees, she read international history at the London School of Economics and was encouraged by Angela Carter. Her first published novel, Union Street (1982), portrayed working-class women in the north of England. She then turned to the First World War in the Regeneration trilogy, drawing on the work of the army doctor W. H. R. Rivers. Later books include Life Class and The Silence of the Girls, and she was made a dame in 2025. The Ghost Road, the trilogy’s final volume, won the 1995 Booker Prize.

Timeline of Pat Barker’s life

Works

Prizes