SOURCE: "The War That Never Becomes the Past," in The Times Literary Supplement, No. 4823, September 8, 1995, pp. 4-5.

Parker is English nonfiction writer and biographer. In the following review of The Ghost Road, he remarks on the distinctive qualities of Barker's trilogy and praises her blending of fiction and historical fact.

As we approach the millennium, the pall cast across our century by the First World War shows no sign of lifting. In spite of later and bloodier conflicts, in spite of the gradual dilution of public ceremonies of remembrance, in spite of the fact that almost everyone who fought in the war has now died, the Great War for Civilization (as it was dubbed in a more innocent age) continues to haunt the collective imagination. A number of fine modern novels have been written about the war: Susan Hill's Strange Meeting (1971), Jennifer Johnston's How Many Miles to Babylon...