Les Barker

Originally from Manchester he trained in accountancy before his talent for the written word was discovered. Initially he toured around folk music venues with The Mrs Ackroyd Band (named after his mongrel dog Mrs Ackroyd), but later ventured out on his own as a solo performer.

As well as touring Britain he has also performed in Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, the United States of America and Canada.

He has published 71 books to date and has released (either as a solo performer or with his band) 15 albums. His books typically feature a mixture of monologues and comic songs, with a few serious songs. The monologues tip the hat to Stanley Holloway. Like Holloway, Barker has created several recurring characters, including Jason and the Arguments, Cosmo the Fairly Accurate Knife Thrower, Captain Indecisive and Spot of the Antartic. All of these have become trademarks of Barker's work.

Both his funny and more serious songs have become standards for other singers such as and June Tabor.

He is also remarkable as being one of the few writers to get the Welsh place name Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantisiliogogogoch into a song successfully (it forms the main chorus of a song of the same name, and is sung four times).

Books