Alan P. Barrett

Alan Paul Barrett is an Irish-born British writer, poet, satirist, musician, comedian, psychologist and card and board game designer. Thanks to something of a cult following during the late 1980s and 1990s, Barrett is now fairly well known in contemporary English literature, and was included in The Guardian's list of Britain's most influential independent writers in 2006. Notably, Barrett is one of the very few independent British authors to have had his work published across much of Europe and the wider world, including four volumes on Amazon.

Early life
Barrett was raised in Ireland, primarily in and around Dublin, before moving to England with his mother and stepfather (a local artisan) in the late 1950s. After being educated at Hessle High School throughout most of the 1960s, Barrett ended up playing snooker with the likes of Ken Doherty and other soon-to-be-champions in various parts of Yorkshire. Curiously, Barrett was at one time employed as a temporary painter & decorator at The Crucible, though this was several years before the venue became home of the World Snooker Championship.

After receiving A-Levels in English, French and Economics, Barrett studied English & Politics at the University of Keele; he graduated with a 2:1 in 1979, after which he studied for his PGCE at the University of Hull in 1981.

After several odd-jobs including that of DJ, pot-washer and painter & decorator, Barrett finally received a publication offer from none other than Peter Cook, after Cook witnessed several of Barrett's readings backstage during rehearsals for the 1976 Amnesty International gig, Pleasure at Her Majesty's. At the time, Barrett was being sub-contracted by Her Majesty's Theatre for various repair and maintenance work. In 1996, when questioned about the incident by Dennis Pennis, Barrett simply referred to it as "good luck on my part," at which point he waved the camera away and reputedly swore at Paul Kaye, telling him to "get a real bloody job, mate."

Personal life
Barrett currently lives in Hessle, East Yorkshire with his partner, Rachael. He has a daughter by a previous marriage and rarely if ever alludes to his personal life. Barrett is a notoriously reluctant man with a deep sense of his and others' personal space. In all previous interviews with broadsheet journalists, Barrett has adamantly refused to discuss his private life or family, insisting that he's there to "chat about what's on the parchment."

Achievements
His own qualifications aside, Barrett has been awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Keele (in 2004, the 25th anniversary of his graduation), the University of Hull (in 2005) and Trinity College, Dublin in 2007 in honour of his Irish upbringing. In March 2005, Barrett was famously presented with the keys to the town of Hessle, his family's adopted home for over 40 years.

Influence

Despite being highly influential among many up-and-coming writers, Barrett's single most prominent (albeit indirect) mark on British culture is probably that of Alan Latchley, one of Peter Cook's last comic creations before his death in 1994. Latchley was a loud, hard-edged, fiercely-proud northerner - a "Scunny man," in Cook's words - always on the brink of success, but never quite there. Many of Latchley's anecdotes are in fact severely twisted and exaggerated versions of stories Barrett had told Cook during their spell together in the late 1970s. Not wanting to offend Barrett directly, Cook changed his character from a Yorkshireman to a Lincolnshire man, transforming Barrett's frequent "I'm a Hull man, Pete" references into Latchley's "Scunny man" routine.

Latchley aside, Barrett's unique work and "northern maverick" sense of artistic independence have influenced countless writers over the years, from Chris Morris to Peter Kay.

Poetry

Unusually for such a prolific author, most of Barrett's works are in fact untitled, identifiable only by their page number or Barrett's own well-known method of each poem having its own individual accompanying artwork, all hand-drawn by Barrett and his daughter.

* The Outer Circle (2002)
* And A Bird Sang (2002)
* Lacedaemon (2003)
* Certain Fictions: Poems and Pieces (2003)

Barrett's artistic independence and distrust of contractual agreements are well known. As a result, his work is rarely available in high street bookshops, though several of the larger Waterstone's stores do stock signed compendiums of his work. All of Barrett's work is available to buy off the Internet, however.

Music

Barrett regularly tours both the UK and Ireland (where he is hugely popular in particular) with his eclectic mix of spoken-word poetry, Irish folk music and stand-up/Q&A sessions. Tickets are usually cheap - around £15 - with Barrett giving most of the money to various local charities.

A typical Barrett concert will usually include followed by an encore comprising the Frederick Weatherly-penned Irish folk staple, Danny Boy.

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