"I have seen the future of horror and his name is Clive Barker"-Stephen King

For more than 20 years the name Clive Barker has been synonymous with the horror Genre.But is there more to his work than simple guts and gore or things that go bump in the night? This researcher believes there is.Although best known as a 'Horror' author , Clive Barker has also written and directed plays, written fantasy for both children and adults, and been successful as a screenwriter,director and artist.His strong charicterisation and imaginative twists on archetypal themes such as the fairytale prove to be thought provoking as well as leaving the reader with an urge to sleep with the light on.

Early years

Born near Penny Lane, Liverpool, UK on 5 October, 1952, Clive Barker realised early on he had a way with words, when by the tender age of 10 he was terrifying fellow BoyScouts with his stories by the campfire.

His early writing was mainly for the London fringe theatre company he founded and his several succesful plays¹ include 'The history of the Devil', 'Subtle Bodies', 'Frankenstein in
Love'and 'The secret life of cartoons'. The plays often delved into the horrific, the fantastical and the darkly erotic,these themes echoing his later literary work and being that which he would become best known for.

Barkers' true love, however, was 'dark' fantasy and he spent his evenings away from the theatre writing short stories , which he did not at the time hope to sell. In 1984 however, he approached publishing company Sphere Books ltd, who were very excited by what they saw and published the best of his 18 months of work(Barker's own choices) in 6 volumes entitled 'Clive Barker's Books of Blood'.

The books were greeted with very high acclaim from readers, critics and fellow authors in the genre alike, particularly in the United States. They now appear in over a dozen languages world wide.

The Novels

Since then Barker has penned numerous successful novels and graphic novels, including 'The great and secret show', 'Weaveworld'(a dark twist on the traditional 'fairytale'), 'Tapping the Vein', 'Everville', 'The Thief of Always' and more recently 'Cold Heart Canyon', a very satirical take on hollywood's quest for eternal youth and beauty.His books for younger readers include 'Abarat' and 'Days of magic nights of war'

The movies

Today Clive Barker owns and heads his own film production company 'Seraphim films' , and has been in the directors chair for movies such as 'Lord of illusions' and 'Nightbreed'² and also written for screenplays such as that for 'Candyman'
The film he is best known for however is 'Hellraiser'³After being very disappointed by an earlier adaptation of his story 'Raw head rex',Barker began to work on his own screen adaptation of 'The hell-bound heart',securing modest funding and calling in a few favours from his old acting troupe,including the relatively unknown Doug Bradly.'Hellraiser' broke the mould of the british horror movie and is still highly regardeD by fans and critics 20 years later.Though it is perhaps better remembered for the elegant performance of 'lead cenobite' (now the iconic 'pinhead') from Bradly than Barker's writing itself.

Today

As well as still writing, producing etc, Barker also has a line of comics and action figures published by 'Marvel' under the title of 'razorline'.