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John Barker was born in Kilburn, London in 1948.

In 1969 along with 6 other comrades he ripped up his Finals papers at Cambridge University. Both before and after this he was arrested on demonstrations against the Vietnam War. In 1971 he was arrested on a charge of possession of weapons and "conspiracy to cause explosions" and was convicted the following year. He and two others defended themselves in the "Angry Brigade" trial which went some way to the jury askingfor an unprecdented leinency plea meaning a ten rather than 15 year sentence.

For the last 20 years he has worked composing indexes for books and has
written 'essays' for Mute, Varinat,Science as Culture, Telepolis and adbusters. Short fiction has appeared in The Edinburgh Review, Brand, Passport, 3ammagzine and the Incendiary Devices anthology.
His prison memoir in a story form is published by Christie books as 'Bending the Bars'. His novel Futures appeared in French from Grasset, and German from Dumont but has so far not appeared in English.