Notes from the Henhouse
From the author of O CALEDONIA, a delightful springtime read full of pigs, ponds and fresh air
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Notes from the Henhouse
Narrated by:
Raffaella Barker
Buy Now for £17.94
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Narrated by:
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Raffaella Barker
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By:
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Elspeth Barker
OLIVIA LAING
'Deserves to be permanently on the bedside table - to cheer, reassure and inspire'
OBSERVER
'Gothic, poetic and exuberantly funny. What a pleasure it was to read'
ESTHER FREUD
'Joyous, startling, funny, lush, dark and complex'
THE TIMES
In Notes from the Henhouse, you will find:
A Gothic castle, a draughty Norfolk farmhouse and a malevolent Aga
A pet pig, Portia with a penchant for drama, an obsession with geraniums and an addiction to wine (the Bulgarian vintage)
George Barker, poet and beloved husband, warbling cowboy songs into his glass and declaiming Hopkins and Houseman in The Drinking Room
Five entrancing baby cherubimos, rolling and bouncing about in a big brass bed, before growing up at breakneck speed
The ecstasy of writing, the dither of procrastination, and the endless adventures to be had in the wild realms of the imagination
The outrage of death, the loneliness of widowhood, and then the surprising joys of dereliction: of moving very slowly round the garden in a shapeless coat, planting drifts of narcissus bulbs for latter springs.
This collection of autobiographical essays from the inimitable Elspeth Barker, author of the beloved modern classic O Caledonia, is a delightful portrait of a riotous, rapturous, remarkable life.
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Critic reviews
Elspeth Barker could write about anything and have you longing for more . . . Notes from the Henhouse is a book for which one feels incredulous gratitude. How come, you think, she is not better known? The book deserves to be permanently on the bedside table - to cheer, reassure and inspire . . . [Barker's] essays are sympathetic little masterpieces to which she brings storytelling capacity and an intensity that absorbs as the best fiction does (Kate Kellaway)
Barker's prose is poetic but not inflated, visceral but smooth . . . Notes from the Henhouse is a vibrant, jubilant testament to both her life and work (Lucy Scholes)
Elspeth Barker speaks her mind fearlessly, and her mind is scintillating. Witty, caustic, erudite - as fiercely funny in writing about heartbreak and mortality as she is about drunken dinner parties and delinquent dogs (Lucy Hughes-Hallett)
A collection of utterly captivating essays about love, children, pigs, dogs, jealousy, grief, ponds, bereavement, widowhood . . . I would also recommend her only novel, O Caledonia, as an optimal curl-up read. I hope I'm not making her sound cosy - she was much too sharp and original for that (India Knight)
A masterclass in the art of the personal essay. These pieces - about pigs, and loss, and the delicate balance between art and life - are vital, and funny, and true. Though memoir, they have a powerful ambiguity, like the very best short stories (Charlie Gilmour, author of FEATHERHOOD)
What a pleasure it was to read Notes from the Henhouse. An original voice, gothic, poetic and exuberantly funny (Esther Freud, author of HIDEOUS KINKY)
This book is heaven. Elspeth Barker writes like no one else (Olivia Laing, author of CRUDO)
Elspeth Barker is magnificent, the most underrated British writer of the last century. I loved Notes from the Henhouse so much. Laugh-out-loud funny, sad and beautiful, these essays are a revelation, full of love and joy and life lessons (never go for a man who will intentionally step on a frog and be pragmatic about hens). I will read them again and again (Camilla Grudova, author of CHILDREN OF PARADISE)
Brings joy to the bleak midwinter (Belinda Bamber)
Her writing is glorious and this book of essays is a wonder. Every essay is a masterpiece in miniature . . . Barker is a gift and so is this book. Buy one for yourself and one for those you love. It is that sort of book (Natasha Poliszczuk)
Elspeth Barker is a writer whose work is so delightful there's almost no point in reviewing it. Why not just fill the page with quotations? . . . Those who have read Barker's only novel know the sweet bitterness and wild glitter of her writing . . . Enchanting (Louisa Young)
Joyous, startling, funny, lush, dark and complex. The perfect stocking filler, I'd say, for the clever women in your life. (Melanie Reid)
I loved this .A beautiful reading by Elspeth’s daughter Rafaella Barker exudes the love she has for her mother. Her admiration is also shown in her introduction and in her choice of these selected essays which present such a superb portrait of a highly idiosyncratic and brilliantly creative woman.
Elspeth had always wanted to marry a poet. Her first attempt failed when her poet-fiance stamped on a frog, but she she was more successful the next time. Her often tempestuous marriage to the poet George Barker endured despite the large age difference and his already having 9 children when she met him. Words and poetry , including Greek and Latin , are the warp and weft of her life . I just loved the richness of her language and her many embedded references. These are often funny: even a pig munching pumpkin pie takes William Blake’s advice and kisses ‘ joy as it flies’ . Her descriptions of trees and flowers in particular are lifted into poetry by a phrase or even a single word, like the cliffs ‘starry with thrift’.
Elspeth recreates her wildly eccentric childhood in a remote Scottish castle surrounded by a crazy “gallimaufry” of pet animals and birds great and small, including her beloved pet jackdaw . The joy of calling him in from the sky into her iguana-filled bedroom is one never quite matched in later life. Married life followed in the chaotic and barely heated Norfolk home quickly filled with five children and a host of animals. Cats copulate at the back of the Aga, the lowest shelf being used for reviving dead kittens. Labradors continue to eat the hens, despite the punishment of hanging the dead bird around the guilty dog’s neck. And there’s Elspeth’s particular love, Portia the pig ,who requires oceans of special care including sedation for nail cutting, and makes a noise when eating like “sex noises on television” - and takes a chunk out of her son-in-law’s hand.
I laughed out loud on many occasions through these six hours, but there are also some profoundly moving essays . The final days of her confused and strong-willed mother vainly trying to pack for India is intensely real. I can’t forget the image of the body of her red sari-clad ayah being tipped into the sea after she had died onboard the ship bringing Elspetth back to England. In the extended piece on grief she quotes to moving effect Tennyson’s bleak lament for his dead friend Hallam – and also explores the Latin derivation of the word ‘widow’ meaning emptiness. Elspeth’s intellectual and physical analysis of her grief, rage and disbelief following George Barker’s death is exceptionally powerful
There is so much in these essays. I have listened to them all twice and I’m sure I’d find even more on a third listening!
An absolute joy!
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