Barbara (Louise) Trapido, born 1941 as Barbara Schuddeboom, is a British novelist born in South Africa with German, Danish and Dutch ancestry. Born in Cape Town and growing up in Durban she studied at the University of Natal gaining a BA in 1963 before emigrating to London. After many years teaching, she became a full-time writer in 1970.
Trapido has published seven novels, three of which have been nominated for the Whitbread Prize. Her semi-autobiographical Frankie & Stankie, one of those shortlisted, which deals with growing up white under apartheid, gained a great deal of critical attention, most of it favourable. It was also longlisted for the Booker prize.
At a literary event in Abingdon in March 2008, Barbara read extracts from an as yet unpublished 7th novel.
Barbara Trapido lives with her family in Oxford and some of her books have Oxford connections.
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