🎯 Where Should I Start?
ⓘ About Nicola Barker
Nicola Barker is an author that has made a name for himself for being a prolific author in the manner of Charles Dickens. For her work, Barker has won several prestigious awards and prizes including the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the MacMillan Silver Pen Award, and the David Higham Prize for Fiction. Living in South Africa in her childhood and early teenage years, Nicola Barker was shocked by the brutality of the apartheid regime. Her young mind was exposed to the awful hypocrisies and contradictions of a world where skin tone was what determined value. It was then that things became so personal for Barker and she knew that it was important to speak the truth and choose sides.
All Book Series by Nicola Barker
A Report To The Minister: Bushy Park
Series opener · book 1 of 5 · published 2009 Anthology · Will Self
Park Stories
Book 2 of 5 · published 2009 Co-authored · Ali Smith,Will Self,Hanan Al-Shaykh,Clare Wigfall
A Beauty Parlour for Swans: Kensington Gardens
Latest in the series · book 5 of 5 · published 2009 Anthology · Hanan Al-Shaykh
David Mitchell: Critical Essays
Series opener · book 1 of 10 · published 2011 Anthology · Sarah Dillon
Maggie Gee: Critical Essays
Book 2 of 10 · published 2015 Anthology · Sarah Dillon
China Miéville: Critical Essays
Book 3 of 10 · published 2015 Anthology · China Miéville,Roger Luckhurst,Sherryl Vint,Caroline Edwards,Joe Sutliff Sanders,Matthew Sangster,Jr.,Paul March-Russell,Tony Venezia,Raphael Zähringer,Dougal McNeill,Ben De Bruyn,Anthony F. Lang,Mark P. Williams
Adam Roberts: Critical Essays
Book 4 of 10 · published 2016 Anthology · Christos Callow Jr.
Rupert Thomson: Critical Essays
Book 5 of 10 · published 2016 Anthology · Iain Robinson,Rupert Thomson,John McAuliffe,Kaye Mitchell,Rebecca Pohl,Christopher Vardy,Robert Duggan,Rhona Gordon
Tom McCarthy: Critical Essays
Book 6 of 10 · published 2016 Anthology · Dennis Duncan
M. John Harrison: Critical Essays
Book 7 of 10 · published 2019 Anthology · M. John Harrison,Rob Latham,Mark Bould,James Machin,Paul Kincaid,Tim Etchells,Chris Pak,Nick Freeman,Fred Botting,Rhys Williams,Graham Fraser,Ryan Elliott,Christina Scholz,Vassili Christodoulou,Timothy Jarvis,Nicholas Prescott
Michel Faber: Critical Essays
Book 9 of 10 · published 2020 Anthology · Michel Faber,Rodge Glass,Tomasz Dobrogoszcz,Kate Wilkinson,Nicholas Prescott,Rebecca Langworthy,Kristin Lindfield-Ott,Jim MacPherson,Timothy C. Baker,Ian Blyth,Natalie O'Keeffe,Matt Foley,Oliver B. Langworthy
Sarah Hall: Critical Essays
Latest in the series · book 10 of 10 · published 2022 Anthology · Alexander Beaumont,Elke D’hoker
? Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Nicola Barker?
Nicola Barker is an author that has made a name for himself for being a prolific author in the manner of Charles Dickens. For her work, Barker has won several prestigious awards and prizes including the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the MacMillan Silver Pen Award, and the David Higham Prize for Fiction. Living in South Africa in her childhood and early teenage years, Nicola Barker was shocked by the brutality of the apartheid regime.
Which Nicola Barker series should I start with?
The best place to start is the Thames Gateway series, the earliest of Nicola Barker's multi-book series: it opens with Wide Open (1998) and runs to 3 books across 1998–2007, ending with Darkmans (2007). Nicola Barker's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.
How many books has Nicola Barker written?
Nicola Barker has 32 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1993 and 2025. 21 of them belong to 4 named series — the largest being the Contemporary Writers: Critical Essays series with 10 books — and 11 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.
In what order should Nicola Barker's series be read?
Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Nicola Barker's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Thames Gateway (1998–2007, 3 books), Park Stories (2009, 5 books) and Digital Trilogy (2010–2014, 3 books), plus 1 more.
How are Nicola Barker's books organised into series?
This guide splits Nicola Barker's 32 books into 4 named series and 11 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Contemporary Writers: Critical Essays (10 books, 2011–2022); Park Stories (5 books, 2009); Digital Trilogy (3 books, 2010–2014); Thames Gateway (3 books, 1998–2007).