 Clive Barker is an English author, film director and visual artist mainly working on fantasy and horror fiction.
He was born in Liverpool, England on 5 October 1952 to parents Joan Rubie and Leonard Barker. He attended Dovedale Primary School and Quarry bank High School, and later went on to study English and Philosophy at Liverpool University - where his picture now hangs in the Philosophy Department’s hallway entrance.
John Gregson, Barker’s first partner (whom he met in 1975) became a huge influence in his early artistic life and supported his love of theatre and writing. The second instalment of Books of Blood and The Damnation Game (1985) were dedicated to Gregson. Barker lived with Gregson until 1986.
Barker began his writing career with short stories (collected in Books of Blood 1-6) and the novel The Damnation Game, later moving to urban fantasy with elements of horror, like in Weaverworld (1987), The Great and Secret Show (1989), Imajica (1991) and Sacrament (1996).
Stephen King was quoted on the back covers of Books of Blood as saying: “I have seen the future of horror, his name is Clive Barker.”
Barker lists Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, Ray Bradbury, William S Burroughs, and Jean Cocteau, among others, as his influences.
Barker has also experimented in filmmaking and movie production, although his films have received mixed reviews. He directed Hellraiser (1987), which was based on his 1986 novella The Hellbound Heart, and was the executive producer of the film Gods and Monsters.
The film Candyman was adapted from his short story The Forbidden in his Books of Blood series.
Barker is also a prolific visual artist, often illustrating his own books. He has worked on numerous paintings and the covers of collections of plays, and has also worked on comic books.
Of himself Barker said: “I want to be remembered as an imaginer, someone who used his imagination as a way to journey beyond the limits of self, beyond the limits of flesh and blood, beyond the limits of even perhaps life itself, in order to discover some sense of order in what appears to be a disordered universe. I’m using my imagination to find meaning, both for myself and, I hope, for my readers.”
In 2003 he won The Davidson/Valentini Award at the 15th GLAAD Media Awards, presented “to an openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender individual who has made a significant difference in promoting equal rights for any of those communities.”
Barker currently lives in Los Angeles with his partner, photographer David Armstrong and Armstrong’s daughter from a previous relationship, Nicole. [edit]
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