Barker, Pat(ricia Margaret) (1943– )

English writer. She received critical acclaim for her ‘Regeneration’ trilogy, an evocative exploration of World War I, comprising Regeneration (1991), The Eye in the Door (1993; winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize), and The Ghost Road (1995; winner of the Booker Prize). Other novels include Another World (1997) and Double Vision (2003).

She was born in Thornaby-on-Tees and educated at the London School of Economics and Durham University. She taught history and politics until 1982, when she published her first book, Union Street. Her early novels dealt with the stuggles of working-class women in northern England.