Duncan Barrett | |
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| Born | Duncan Barrett 1 January 1983 London |
| Occupation | Writer and editor |
| Genre | Biography, memoir |
| Notable works | The Sugar Girls |
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Duncan Barrett is a writer and editor who specialises in biography and memoir. [1] After publishing several books in collaboration with other authors, he published his first solo book, Men of Letters , in 2014. Barrett also works as an actor and theatre director.
Duncan was born in Islington, London in 1983 [2] and went to City of London School from 1994 to 2001, [3] before studying English at Jesus College, Cambridge, [4] where he served as Film Editor of student newspaper Varsity . [5] He is the author of Star Trek: The Human Frontier, co-written with his mother Michele Barrett and published by Polity Press in 2000. [6] He edited Vitali Vitaliev's travelogue Passport to Enclavia, published by Reportage Press in 2008. [7]
Barrett was the editor of Ronald Skirth's pacifist First World War memoir The Reluctant Tommy , published by Macmillan in 2010. [4] In it he wrote that, having come across Skirth's memoir through his mother's research, he felt determined that it should be read by a wide audience. [8] The book was favourably reviewed by Richard Holmes in the Evening Standard [9] and Jonathan Gibbs in the Financial Times, [10] Socialist Worker [11] and the Sunday Express. [12] However, it came under attack from critics who objected to its pacifist politics and questioned its accuracy.[ citation needed ] In a revised introduction to the paperback edition (2011), Barrett defended the memoir, encouraging people to "read the book for yourself and make up your own mind who to believe". [13]
In 2012, Collins published The Sugar Girls , [1] a book co-written by Barrett with Nuala Calvi, telling the stories of women workers at Tate & Lyle's East End factories since the Second World War. [14] It soon became a best-seller. [15] In an article for History Workshop Online, Barrett wrote that, while their methodology was indebted to oral history, the result was a work of narrative non-fiction. [16] The authors were inspired by Jennifer Worth's Call the Midwife , which was their "touchstone" as they wrote. [17] The book is accompanied by a blog, where Barrett and Calvi discuss broader issues of life and work in the East End of London in the period covered by the book, as well as posting photographs and audio clips of the women they interviewed. [18]
In 2013, Barrett and Calvi's second book together, GI Brides , was published by Harper, based on interviews with British women who married Americans during the Second World War. [19] It soon became a Sunday Times best-seller. [20] The following year, a US edition of the book went into The New York Times nonfiction bestseller list. [21]
Barrett and Calvi's third collaboration for HarperCollins, The Girls Who Went to War, tells the true stories of women who served in the Army, Navy and Air Force during the Second World War. The book was published on 7 May 2015, and launched the following day to commemorate the 70th anniversary of VE-Day. [22] On 17 May 2015, it went into the Sunday Times bestseller list at number 6. [23]
In 2014, Barrett's first solo book, Men of Letters was published by AA Publishing. The book tells the story of the Post Office Rifles during the First World War. [24]
Barrett also works as an actor and theatre director. He trained at Central School of Speech and Drama, graduating in 2006. [25] In 2007 he played John Walker in Eastern Angles' production of Arthur Ransome's We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea and was praised for "neatly avoid[ing] any jolly hockeysticks". [26] In 2011 he was seen as W. T. Tutte in the BBC's Code-breakers and in 2012 as Paul Winder in National Geographic's Locked up Abroad . [27]
Barrett has often worked on the plays of Shakespeare and other dramatists. He is the director of the short film Exit Strategy (2010), adapted from Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida . [28] He played Frederick in a production of Aphra Behn's The Rover at the Edinburgh Fringe 2006. [29] The previous year he played the title role in Shakespeare's Richard II at the festival. [30] In 2004, he directed All's Well That Ends Well at the festival, with a cast including Joe Thomas of The Inbetweeners . [31]
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Creative nonfiction is a genre of writing that uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives. Creative nonfiction contrasts with other nonfiction, such as academic or technical writing or journalism, which are also rooted in accurate fact though not written to entertain based on prose style. Many writers view creative nonfiction as overlapping with the essay.
Silvertown is a district in the London Borough of Newham, in east London, England. It lies on the north bank of the Thames and was historically part of the parishes of West Ham and East Ham, hundred of Becontree, and the historic county of Essex. Since 1965, Silvertown has been part of the London Borough of Newham, a local government district of Greater London. It forms part of the London E16 postcode district along with Canning Town and Custom House.
Sir Henry Tate, 1st Baronet, was an English sugar merchant and philanthropist, noted for establishing the Tate Gallery in London.
Jonathan George SnowHonFRIBA is an English journalist and television presenter. He is best known as the longest-running presenter of Channel 4 News, which he presented from 1989 to 2021. On 29 April 2021, Snow announced his retirement from the role; his final programme aired on 23 December 2021. Although Channel 4's news programming is produced by ITN, Snow was employed directly by the broadcaster.
Tate & Lyle PLC is a British-headquartered, global supplier of food and beverage products to food and industrial markets. It was originally a sugar refining business, but from the 1970s, it began to diversify, eventually divesting its sugar business in 2010. It specialises in turning raw materials such as corn and tapioca into ingredients that add taste, texture, and nutrients to food and beverages. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
Nuala O'Faolain was an Irish journalist, TV producer, book reviewer, teacher and writer. She became well known after the publication of her memoirs Are You Somebody? and Almost There. She wrote a biography of Irish criminal Chicago May and two novels.
Abram Lyle was a Scottish food manufacturer and politician, who is noted for founding the sugar refiners Abram Lyle & Sons in 1887, which merged with the company of his rival Henry Tate to become Tate & Lyle in 1921.
Anthony Bozza is a New York City-based author and journalist who has written extensively for Rolling Stone and other magazines. He is also the author of bestselling books on Eminem, AC/DC and Artie Lange. Since 2005 he has co-authored numerous autobiographies of artists including Slash, INXS, and Tommy Lee.
Sam Millar is a crime writer and playwright from Belfast, Northern Ireland.
John Ronald Skirth was a British soldier who served in the Royal Garrison Artillery during the First World War.
The Reluctant Tommy is a book compiled by Duncan Barrett from the memoirs of Ronald Skirth, a member of the Royal Garrison Artillery during the First World War. His experiences during the Battle of Messines, the Battle of Passchendaele and the Second Battle of the Piave River, which Skirth calls the Battle of the Asiago Plateau, were detailed in this book. The book captured attention due to Skirth's actions during the war to avoid enemy casualties. The manuscript was known only by the family for decades before finally being published in 2010. The book received favourable reviews on publication, but was also criticised for significant historical inaccuracies.
Anna Margaret Michelle Calvi is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. Her accolades include three Mercury Prize nominations, one Brit Award nomination, and a European Border Breakers Award. She has been noted by some critics as a virtuoso guitarist, as well as for her powerful, wide-ranging operatic contralto voice and sometimes androgynous stage appearance.
Wendy Holden, also known as Taylor Holden, is an author, journalist and former war correspondent who has written more than thirty books. She was born in Pinner, North London and now lives in Suffolk, England.
The Sugar Girls: Tales of Hardship, Love and Happiness in Tate & Lyle's East End is a bestselling work of narrative non-fiction based on interviews with women who worked in Tate & Lyle's East End factories in Silvertown from the mid-1940s onwards. Written by Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi, it was published by Collins in 2012. The authors were inspired to write it by Jennifer Worth's Call the Midwife.
Call the Midwife, later called Call the Midwife: A True Story of the East End in the 1950s, is a memoir by Jennifer Worth, and the first in a trilogy of books describing her work as a district nurse and midwife in the East End of London during the 1950s. Worth wrote the book after retiring from a subsequent career as a musician, and it was originally published in July 2002. Reissued in 2007, it became a bestseller, as did the sequel Shadows of the Workhouse and the final volume Farewell to the East End (2009). By the time of Jennifer Worth’s death in June 2011, her books had already sold almost a million copies. In 2012, the popular BBC adaptation of the trilogy boosted sales further, and all four of the author's books about the East End went back into the charts.
GI Brides: The Wartime Girls Who Crossed the Atlantic for Love is a bestselling book by Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi, authors of The Sugar Girls. It was published by HarperCollins on 29 August 2013.
Men of Letters: The Post Office Heroes who Fought the Great War is a book by Duncan Barrett, co-author of The Sugar Girls and GI Brides and editor of The Reluctant Tommy. It was published by AA Publishing on 1 August 2014 and officially launched on 4 August to marked the hundredth anniversary of Britain's declaration of war.
Sir Oliver Lyle, OBE (1891–1961) was a British sugar technologist during the early 20th century.
Paula Hawkins is a British author best known for her top-selling psychological thriller novel The Girl on the Train (2015), which deals with themes of domestic violence, alcohol, and drug abuse. The novel was adapted into a film starring Emily Blunt in 2016. Hawkins' second thriller novel, Into the Water, was released in 2017.
Dilly Court is an English author of popular historical fiction and family saga novels also writing under the pseudonym of Lily Baxter. She published her first book when she was 65 and, as of 2023, her novels have sold more than four million copies.
