Nicola Barker (born 30 March 1966) is an English novelist and short story writer.
She was born in Ely, Cambridgeshire, England. When she was still young her parents left England and settled in South Africa.Typically she writes about damaged or eccentric people in mundane situations, and has a fondness for bleak, isolated settings. Wide Open and Behindlings are set respectively on the Isle of Sheppey and Canvey Island. Together with Darkmans (2007) they form an informal trilogy based around the Thames Gateway.Darkmans won the 2008 Hawthornden Prize. Patrick Ness's review in The Guardian described the book as "phenomenally good" despite it being a "838-page epic with little describable plot, taking place over just a few days and set in...Ashford"Her 2004 novel, Clear, is set in London during David Blaine's Above the Below 44-day fast in London in 2003.