My Account
Log in Registration
All
Cart
Highlights
Fiction Books
Non-Fiction Books
Children's Books
Rare Books
Music
DVD & Blu-Ray
Video Games
Category
Wishlists
Cart
All
Free Shipping in the UK
Trustpilot
Proud to be B-Corp

Notes from the Henhouse Elspeth Barker

Notes from the Henhouse By Elspeth Barker

Notes from the Henhouse by Elspeth Barker

Reviews:
£14.39
New RRP £18.99
Condition - New
40+ in stock
New

Summary

This collection of autobiographical essays from the inimitable Elspeth Barker, author of the beloved modern classic O Caledonia, is a delightful portrait of a riotous, rapturous, remarkable life

Notes from the Henhouse Summary

Notes from the Henhouse: Collected Essays by Elspeth Barker

In Notes from the Henhouse, you will find:

A Gothic castle, a draughty Norfolk farmhouse and a malevolent Aga

A pet pig, Portia with a penchant for drama, an obsession with geraniums and an addiction to wine (the Bulgarian vintage)

George Barker, poet and beloved husband, warbling cowboy songs into his glass and declaiming Hopkins and Houseman in The Drinking Room

Five entrancing baby cherubimos, rolling and bouncing about in a big brass bed, before growing up at breakneck speed

The ecstasy of writing, the dither of procrastination, and the endless adventures to be had in the wild realms of the imagination

The outrage of death, the loneliness of widowhood, and then the surprising joys of dereliction: of moving very slowly round the garden in a shapeless coat, planting drifts of narcissus bulbs for latter springs.

Notes from the Henhouse Reviews

This book is heaven. Elspeth Barker writes like no one else. -- Olivia Laing, author of CRUDO
What a pleasure it was to read Notes from the Henhouse. An original voice, gothic, poetic and exuberantly funny. -- Esther Freud, author of HIDEOUS KINKY
Elspeth Barker speaks her mind fearlessly, and her mind is scintillating. Witty, caustic, erudite - as fiercely funny in writing about heartbreak and mortality as she is about drunken dinner parties and delinquent dogs. -- Lucy Hughes-Hallett
A masterclass in the art of the personal essay. These pieces - about pigs, and loss, and the delicate balance between art and life - are vital, and funny, and true. Though memoir, they have a powerful ambiguity, like the very best short stories. -- Charlie Gilmour, author of FEATHERHOOD
Elspeth Barker is magnificent, the most underrated British writer of the last century. I loved Notes from the Henhouse so much. Laugh-out-loud funny, sad and beautiful, these essays are a revelation, full of love and joy and life lessons (never go for a man who will intentionally step on a frog and be pragmatic about hens). I will read them again and again. -- Camilla Grudova, author of CHILDREN OF PARADISE

About Elspeth Barker

Elspeth Barker (1940-2022) wrote and published her first and only novel O Caledonia, at the age of 51. It was awarded the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize.In her career as a journalist, Elspeth wrote for the Independent, Observer, Sunday Times, London Review of Books and others. For ten years in the 1980s Elspeth taught Latin at what she describes as a naughty girls' school on the Norfolk coast. Later, she worked as a lecturer in Creative Writing at the Norwich University of the Arts. She was married to the poet George Barker, with whom she had 5 children, they lived in rural Norfolk. After his death in 1991 she lived on there with numerous badly behaved animals and a home that welcomed everyone.


Raffaella Barker has been writing novels since the age of 26, and has been a promiscuous reader all her life. She has written 9 novels and worked as a journalist for Country Life, The Sunday Times, Conde Nast Traveller and Harpers Bazaar. Raffaella lectured on the Creative Writing programme at the University of East Anglia, and continues to teach creative writing privately. The eldest of Elspeth and George Barker's 5 children, she has inherited their penchant for badly behaved animals and, about her home on the North Norfolk Coast, has said, 'The Norfolk landscape sends a shiver through my soul.'

Additional information

NGR9781399612494
9781399612494
1399612492
Notes from the Henhouse: Collected Essays by Elspeth Barker
Elspeth Barker
W&N Essentials
New
Hardback
Orion Publishing Co
2023-11-09
240
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a new book - be the first to read this copy. With untouched pages and a perfect binding, your brand new copy is ready to be opened for the first time

Customer Reviews - Notes from the Henhouse