HEADING INLAND - Softcover

‘Strange and magical...Barker goes from strength to strength.’ Sunday Telegraph

‘A singular, soaring, stratospheric talent.’ Scotland on Sunday

‘Devastatingly funny and totally original...only Will Self can match her for black humour and bizarre fabrications...No one else in England writes like this. Don’t miss this book.’ Tatler

‘A witty, demotic and unique talent.’ The Times

‘The language is unfussy, direct, at times colloquial, and then, just when it is needed to produce the right emotional counterpoint, elegant and formal...What could have been heavy-handed in another writer’s hands is here transformed into something light, enchanting and moving. Heading Inland achieves everything it sets out to do. Highly recommended.’ Literary Review

‘Another extremely accomplished collection. The writing is sharp, intricate and stylish. Each story presents its own particular and perfectly realized world...Nothing is too weird or too ordinary for Nicola Barker. I can think of few writers who can make me think of Joe Orton one minute and Saul Bellow the next.’ Guardian

Heading Inland is a funny, broody, saucy collection of stories about the kind of people you sometimes meet but might prefer to ignore.

Barker creates a wonderfully fantastical and unimaginable world: an unborn baby escapes an unsuitable mother through a secret belly-button zip; a wayward and yet enigmatic man attempts to rescue eels from an East End pie shop; a young woman discusses her fascination in other women’s breasts; a boy with his inside organs back to front desperately seeks attention; and a bitter old woman becomes bent on war with a tramp.

This collection confirms Nicola Barker as one of the most versatile and original writers of her generation with a brilliant unconventional imagination she creates a new world that sparkles with dark humour.