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Clive Barker

Goodreads Author

Born

in Liverpool, The United Kingdom

Website

http://clivebarker.info/

Twitter

realclivebarker

Genre

Horror, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Young Adult

Influences

William Blake, Jean Cocteau, Stephen King, H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan ...more

Member Since

October 2015

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Clive Barker was born in Liverpool, England, the son of Joan Rubie (née Revill), a painter and school welfare officer, and Leonard Barker, a personnel director for an industrial relations firm. Educated at Dovedale Primary School and Quarry Bank High School, he studied English and Philosophy at Liverpool University and his picture now hangs in the entrance hallway to the Philosophy Department. It was in Liverpool in 1975 that he met his first partner, John Gregson, with whom he lived until 1986. Barker's second long-term relationship, with photographer David Armstrong, ended in 2009.

In 2003, Clive Barker received The Davidson/Valentini Award at the 15th GLAAD Media Awards. This award is presented "to an openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or tran Clive Barker was born in Liverpool, England, the son of Joan Rubie (née Revill), a painter and school welfare officer, and Leonard Barker, a personnel director for an industrial relations firm. Educated at Dovedale Primary School and Quarry Bank High School, he studied English and Philosophy at Liverpool University and his picture now hangs in the entrance hallway to the Philosophy Department. It was in Liverpool in 1975 that he met his first partner, John Gregson, with whom he lived until 1986. Barker's second long-term relationship, with photographer David Armstrong, ended in 2009.

In 2003, Clive Barker received The Davidson/Valentini Award at the 15th GLAAD Media Awards. This award is 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". While Barker is critical of organized religion, he has stated that he is a believer in both God and the afterlife, and that the Bible influences his work.

Fans have noticed of late that Barker's voice has become gravelly and coarse. He says in a December 2008 online interview that this is due to polyps in his throat which were so severe that a doctor told him he was taking in ten percent of the air he was supposed to have been getting. He has had two surgeries to remove them and believes his resultant voice is an improvement over how it was prior to the surgeries. He said he did not have cancer and has given up cigars. On August 27, 2010, Barker underwent surgery yet again to remove new polyp growths from his throat. In early February 2012 Barker fell into a coma after a dentist visit led to blood poisoning. Barker remained in a coma for eleven days but eventually came out of it. Fans were notified on his Twitter page about some of the experience and that Barker was recovering after the ordeal, but left with many strange visions.

Barker is one of the leading authors of contemporary horror/fantasy, writing in the horror genre early in his career, mostly in the form of short stories (collected in Books of Blood 1 – 6), and the Faustian novel The Damnation Game (1985). Later he moved towards modern-day fantasy and urban fantasy with horror elements in Weaveworld (1987), The Great and Secret Show (1989), the world-spanning Imajica (1991) and Sacrament (1996), bringing in the deeper, richer concepts of reality, the nature of the mind and dreams, and the power of words and memories.

Barker has a keen interest in movie production, although his films have received mixed receptions. He wrote the screenplays for Underworld (aka Transmutations – 1985) and Rawhead Rex (1986), both directed by George Pavlou. Displeased by how his material was handled, he moved to directing with Hellraiser (1987), based on his novella The Hellbound Heart. His early movies, the shorts The Forbidden and Salome, are experimental art movies with surrealist elements, which have been re-released together to moderate critical acclaim. After his film Nightbreed (Cabal), which was widely considered to be a flop, Barker returned to write and direct Lord of Illusions. Barker was an executive producer of the film Gods and Monsters, which received major critical acclaim.

Barker is a prolific visual artist working in a variety of media, often illustrating his own books. His paintings have been seen first on the covers of his official fan club magazine, Dread, published by Fantaco in the early Nineties, as well on the covers of the collections of his plays, Incarnations (1995) and Forms of Heaven (1996), as well as on the second printing of the original UK publications of his Books of Blood series.

A longtime comics fan, Barker achieved his dream of publishing his own superhero books when Marvel Comics launched the Razorline imprint in 1993. Based on detailed premises, titles and lead characters he created specifically for this, the four interrelated titles — set outside the Marvel universe — were Ectokid, ...more

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Average rating: 4.1 · 645,268 ratings · 32,644 reviews · 701 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Hellbound Heart 4.08 avg rating — 63,853 ratings — published 1986 — 27 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Thief of Always 4.21 avg rating — 35,830 ratings — published 1992 — 76 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Weaveworld 4.13 avg rating — 33,370 ratings — published 1987 — 106 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Great and Secret Show (Book of the Art #1) 4.06 avg rating — 31,020 ratings — published 1989 — 61 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Books of Blood: Volumes One to Three (Books of Blood, #1-3) 4.19 avg rating — 29,199 ratings — published 1984 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Abarat 4.10 avg rating — 29,334 ratings — published 2002	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Books of Blood: Volume One (Books of Blood, #1) 4.05 avg rating — 27,131 ratings — published 1984 — 71 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Imajica 4.17 avg rating — 23,874 ratings — published 1991 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Cabal 3.92 avg rating — 21,932 ratings — published 1988 — 82 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Damnation Game 3.82 avg rating — 20,879 ratings — published 1985 — 80 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Clive Barker…

Series by Clive Barker

Books of Blood (6 books)
by

Clive Barker (Goodreads Author)

4.11 avg rating — 105,347 ratings

Abarat (5 books)
by

Clive Barker (Goodreads Author)

4.14 avg rating — 50,826 ratings

Book of the Art (2 books)
by

Clive Barker (Goodreads Author)

4.05 avg rating — 42,051 ratings

Imajica (2 books)
by

Clive Barker (Goodreads Author)

4.29 avg rating — 13,731 ratings

Clive Barker's Hellraiser (2011) (5 books)
by

Clive Barker (Goodreads Author),

Janusz Ordon (Illustrations),

Mark Alan Miller (Goodreads Author)

4.02 avg rating — 5,658 ratings

More series by Clive Barker…

Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the New York Times–bestselling author of critically acclaimed speculative novels including Mexican Gothic (which won...

Polls

July FANTASY: This first round poll decides which two books will go on to the second round for our July 2014 Fantasy Book-of-the-Month.

Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

22 votes, 21.8%

Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson

10 votes, 9.9%

The Blue Blazes by Chuck Wendig

9 votes, 8.9%

Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan

7 votes, 6.9%

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

7 votes, 6.9%

Beguilement by Lois McMaster Bujold

7 votes, 6.9%

Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock

7 votes, 6.9%

The Lascar's Dagger by Glenda Larke

6 votes, 5.9%

Stone Junction by Jim Dodge

5 votes, 5.0%

Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick

5 votes, 5.0%

Except the Queen by Jane Yolen & Midori Snyder

4 votes, 4.0%

The Grey Horse by R.A. MacAvoy

4 votes, 4.0%

Hounded by Kevin Hearne

4 votes, 4.0%

Abarat by Clive Barker

4 votes, 4.0%

101 total votes

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