Nicola Barker Archives - A Life in Books

Cover image for TonyInterruptor by Nicola Barker

TonyInterruptor by Nicola Barker: ‘Is this honest? Are we all being honest here?’

27 August 2025 / 22 Comments

It’s nine years since I reviewed Nicola Barker’s The Cauliflower® describing it as a Marmite novel – love it or hate it for those not acquainted with the expression. Her new one, TonyInterruptor, is more conventional although not a novel that lends itself to an easy synopsis, tossing around ideas between its small cast of […]

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Books to Look Out For in August 2025: Part One

7 July 2025 / 19 Comments

August can be a dull month for new fiction given that the holiday season is in full swing but this first instalment starts off with a novel that’s far from boring although it may not suit everyone. Nicola Barker’s TonyInterruptor explores the fallout from a question shouted from the audience at a jazz gig which

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Cover image for The Mannequin Makers by Craig Cliff

Five Weird and Wonderful Works of Fiction I’ve Read

26 March 2021 / 19 Comments

I’m not one for wackiness, tending to run in the opposite direction at the mere mention of magic realism. I hope that description doesn’t put you off but I can’t think of a more apposite word: whimsical doesn’t cover it as you’ll see from the list below. Here then are five novels I’ve read with

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Books to Look Out for in July 2019

3 June 2019 / 34 Comments

Inevitably, July means summer reading which means fewer books for me, not being of the reading by the pool persuasion or doing anything by the pool for that matter. That said, I’m starting off with what will be a surefire summer bestseller: David Nicolls’ Sweet Sorrow. I loved One Day which was commercial fiction perfection

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Books to Look Out for in July 2017

12 June 2017 / 23 Comments

July sees publishing well into its summer reading season with far fewer books than usual to tempt me although Nickolas Butler’s The Hearts of Men more than makes up for that. His debut, Shotgun Lovesongs, was a wonderful, heart-tugging piece of writing. As ever, there’s that nagging worry about second novel syndrome but this new

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My wish list for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction 2017

1 March 2017 / 22 Comments

I tend not to get caught up in literary prize fever these days but there is one for which I make an exception – The Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction whose longlist is due to be announced next Wednesday. Only novels written by women in English published between April 1st 2016 and March 31st 2017

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Paperbacks to Look Out for January 2017: Part One

23 December 2016 / 6 Comments

Lots of lip-smacking paperbacks piled up on bookshop tables to tempt you this January, all ready and waiting for those Christmas book tokens we’ve been given, or hope we’ll have been given. Top of the list is a book I took some persuading to read when it was first published but Harry Parker’s Anatomy of

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Cover image for The Power of the Dog by Thomas Savage

Books of the Year 2016: Part Two

12 December 2016 / 21 Comments

After a stonking start to my reading year, the second instalment of 2016 favourites covers the four months from March to June with just eight books, beginning with a rediscovered American classic. First published in 1967, Thomas Savage’s The Power of the Dog requires a strong stomach to get through the first page but the

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My 2016 Man Booker wish list

19 July 2016 / 31 Comments

It’s that time of year again. I had thought I might ignore the whole kit and caboodle this time around but I was prodded into action by an analysis of trends in Man Booker winners subtitled ‘Male and Middle-aged in Third Person’. On that basis mine is a list of no-hopers, or close to it,

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The Cauliflower® by Nicola Barker: A Marmite novel, unsurprisingly

4 May 2016 / 17 Comments

Even if you’ve not already read one of Nicola Barker’s novels you’ll gather from its cover – and perhaps its title – that you’re going to be in for a wacky ride with The Cauliflower®. It’s born of Barker’s fascination with Sri Ramakrishna – an avatar, widely regarded as having played a leading role in reviving

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Books to Look Out For in April 2016: Part 1

14 March 2016 / 18 Comments

With luck those of us who’ve been struggling with a grey, damp – or worse – winter will be able to see a bit of light glimmering on the horizon by now. Far too early with that observation according to H but I’m forever the weather optimist and if I’m proved wrong there are a

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