I wanted to be a novelist from a very early age - 11 or 12 - but I don't think I ever thought I would write historical fiction. I never thought I might write academic history because I simply wasn't good enough! — Pat Barker Copy Share Image
“But I shot the dog myself. I took him into the barn holding on to his collar. He knew something bad was going to happen, and he rolled over on to his back and showed me his puppy-pink tummy and widdled a bit, quite certain these devices for deflecting aggression would work. I tickled him behind his ear and said,… — Pat Barker Copy Share
When I'm writing the first draft, I'm writing in a very slovenly way: anything to get the outline of the story on paper. — Pat Barker Copy Share Image
When writing about historical characters I try to be as accurate as possible, and in particular not to misrepresent the view they held. With… — Pat Barker Copy Share Image
That balance between involvement and detachment is what novelists do. It's the ideal relationship between a novelist and a character, I think, total involvement… — Pat Barker Copy Share Image
The sky darkened, the air grew colder, but he didn't mind. It didn't occur to him to move. This was the right place. This… — Pat Barker Copy Share Image
'Undertones of War' by Edmund Blunden seems to get less attention than the memoirs of Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves, but it is a… — Pat Barker Copy Share Image
I don't think it's possible to c-call yourself a C-Christian and... and j-just leave out the awkward bits.' -Wilfred Owen — Pat Barker Copy Share Image
The way I see it, when you put the uniform on, in effect you sign a contract. And you don't back out of a… — Pat Barker Copy Share Image
Culturally, the First World War is the war that stands in for other wars, — Pat Barker Copy Share Image
Fiction should be about moral dilemmas that are so bloody difficult that the author doesn't know the answer. — Pat Barker Copy Share Image
