Notes from the Henhouse
On Marrying a Poet, Raising Children and Chickens, and Writing
Published on 19. March 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
240 pages
978-1-6680-2215-3 (ISBN)
Description
"Following the publication of her acclaimed, darkly funny novel O Caledonia, Elspeth Barker's sharp and witty essays appeared regularly in the national press. Notes from the Henhouse, a selection of the most personal of these pieces, welcomes readers into the celebrated writer's life. Tracing Barker's upbringing from her Scottish roots, these essays beautifully capture her time with the poet George Barker and her profound sense of loss following his death. She writes about George's former lover Elizabeth Smart and other figures from 1950s bohemia and 1960s counterculture. Pieces like "Thoughts in a Garden," equal parts hilarious and moving, read like dispatches from the front lines of country living, depicting the vagaries of raising a large family and assorted pets in a damp and drafty farmhouse. Vivid, charming, and wholly original, Notes from the Henhouse is a wonderful glimpse into the life of an extraordinary writer"--
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
Simon & Schuster
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 210 mm
Width: 139 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
256 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-6680-2215-3 (9781668022153)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
In her career as a novelist and journalist, Elspeth Barker wrote for The Independent, The Observer (London), The Sunday Times (London), London Review of Books, and many others. Elspeth also taught Latin at what she described as a naughty girls’ school on the Norfolk coast and worked as a tutor and lecturer in creative writing at the Norwich School of Art and Design. She published her first novel, O Caledonia, at the age of fifty-one. O Caledonia was awarded the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize. Elspeth was married to the poet George Barker and she died in 2022.