Les Barker

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Les Barker (born January 30, 1947) is an English poet. He is most well known for his comedic poetry and parodies of popular songs, however he has also produced some very serious thought-provoking written work.

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

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 75 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 Marriott Edgar, who wrote many of the monologues performed by Stanley Holloway. Like Edgar, Barker has created several recurring characters, including Jason and the Arguments, Cosmo the Fairly Accurate Knife Thrower, Captain Indecisive and Spot of the Antarctic. 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 Waterson:Carthy and June Tabor.

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