Nicola Barker Books

Many horses will, at some point during their lives, suffer hoof problems which, in extreme cases, can cause permanent lameness. So why should oustandingly healthy, hardworking feet be a relative rarity? Performance Hoof, Performance Horse explores the idea that, given the right conditions, healthy hooves are not difficult to maintain and neither do they need much in the way of human intervention, and that the unshod or 'barefoot' horse can be tough, strong and sure-footed. The book offers practical advice on how best to work with a horse with compromised feet in terms of nutrition, surfaces and exercise in order to restore its hooves to optimum condition.

Explores the issues surrounding barefoot horses in the UK and looks in detail at how to improve overall hoof health, in both shod and barefoot horses. This book offers a practical, hands-on advice on achieving barefoot performance in a variety of disciplines - from eventing and hunting to endurance.

In 'Love Your Enemies', Nicola Barker's unconventional short stories offer a loving portrayal of the beautiful, grotesque, and bizarre aspects of overlooked suburban Britons' lives.

From the Man Booker Prize shortlisted author of Darkmans comes a comic epistolary novel of startling originality and wit.

Book by

Shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize, an epic novel of startling originality which confirms Nicola Barker as one of Britain's most exciting literary talents.

Hilarious, poignant and frequently surreal, Small Holdings is a is a comedy of errors from a neglected corner of everyday life by the brilliantly unconventional Nicola Barker.

A groundbreaking novel by a leading comic writer, recognized as one of Granta's Best of Young British Writers 2003.

Five Miles from Outer Hope is an instant classic of teenage self-discovery in the tradition of Absolute Beginners and The Catcher in the Rye. It's the summer of 1981. You're stuck in a semi-derelict art-deco hotel on a tiny island off the South coast of Devon. You're sixteen years old and six foot three inches tall. You're a girl giant. You have a clitoris the size of a Jersey Royal. Your nipples are digging like blind moles through the holes in your crocheted waistcoat. There's nothing to do but paint Margaret Thatcher mugs to supplement the meagre family income, wait for Soft Cell's 'Tainted Love' to come out and dream of literary murderer Jack Henry Abbott. Until a ginger stranger arrives, stinking of antiseptic . . .

A new novel of the pre-Olympic moment from the Booker-shortlisted author of ‘Darkmans’, Nicola Barker. 'There was a rat in the bath', Gene explains. 'It's a long story, but basically I fished it out and was carrying around by the tail, not quite sure how to dispose of it, when I managed to barge in on this woman having a genital tattoo'. 2006 is a foreign country; they do things differently there. Tiger Woods' reputation is entirely untarnished and the English Defence League does not exist yet. Storm-clouds of a different kind are gathering above the bar of Luton's less than exclusive Thistle Hotel. Among those caught up in the unfolding drama are a man who's had cancer seven times, a woman priest with an unruly fringe, the troubled family of a notorious local fascist, an interfering barmaid with three E's at A-level but a PhD in bullshit, and a free-thinking Muslim sex therapist and his considerably more pious wife. But at the heart of every intrigue and the bottom of every mystery is the repugnantly charismatic figure of Stuart Ransom – a golfer in free-fall. Nicola Barker's ‘The Yips’ is at once a historical novel of the pre-Twitter moment, the filthiest state-of-the-nation novel since Martin Amis' ‘Money’ and the most flamboyant piece of comic fiction ever to be set in Luton.