Christopher Richard Barker

Christopher Richard Barker is an English author, publisher and editor, mostly of weird fiction and alternative fiction.
Life and career
Christopher Richard Barker was educated at Magdalen College School, Brackley, The Piggott School, Wargrave and various private colleges.
Barker spent approximately fifteen years working in the Civil Service, local government and the private sector, during which time he procured various business management qualifications.
In 1993 his first short story The Man Who Fell Awake appeared in an anthology called Paperclips. Over the course of the next few years, several of his horror stories began to appear in magazines dedicated to supernatural horror including Supernatural Tales
In the period 2001 - 2003 he edited and produced two issues of the now defunct journal Weirdly Supernatural , which featured stories or articles by authors such as Peter Haining, Glen Cavaliero, Joan Aiken and T.E.D. Klein. The first issue of Weirdly Supernatural is notable for featuring the first short story written by Reggie Oliver. Barker edited the Haunted River journal under the obvious pseudonym 'Jonathan Harker' who plays the central character in Bram Stoker's Dracula.
He has also written articles on the history of supernatural horror fiction from the period 1800 - 1940 and has been described as an expert in his field by Barry Humphries, Reggie Oliver and Glen Cavaliero, author of The Supernatural In English Fiction, published by Oxford University Press.
In 2003, Barker edited and produced Reggie Oliver's debut collection of weird fiction, The Dreams Of Cardinal Vittorini & Other Strange Stories under the Haunted River imprint. In 2005 he edited and produced Oliver's second collection, The Complete Symphonies Of Adolf Hitler.
Barker's first formal foray in to the world of literary fiction Tenebrous Tales was published by Ex Occidente Press in August 2010. The collection is notable for featuring a fictionalized novella based upon the life and death of cult musician Nick Drake, The Melancholy Haunting Of Nicholas Parkes.
In his introduction
Interests and inspirations
Barker is interested in alternative 'indie' music and film. He claims that the work of film-makers Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch have influenced him, along with music by Nick Drake, Radiohead, Bauhaus and Robert Smith.<ref name=ligotti/>
Publications
Editor and publisher
*Weirdly Supernatural 1 and 2 (Haunted River, 2001 - 2003)
*The Dreams Of Cardinal Vittorini by Reggie Oliver (Haunted River, 2003)
*The Complete Symphonies Of Adolf Hitler (Haunted River, 2005)
Author
*Tenebrous Tales (Ex Occidente Press, 2010)

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