Audrey Lilian Barker (13 April 1918 — 21 February 2002) was an English novelist and short story writer. She was born in St Pauls Cray, Kent and brought up in Beckenham. A. L. Barker - Obituaries, News - The Independent During her lifetime, she published ten collections of short stories and eleven novels, one of which - John Brown's Body - was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1970. She was also the winner of the inaugural Somerset Maugham Prize in 1947, with her collection of short stories called Innocents.