{"id":2328,"date":"2025-10-06T11:26:41","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T11:26:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?p=2328"},"modified":"2026-04-16T13:28:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T13:28:30","slug":"chris-barkley-publishes-debut-novel-the-man-on-the-endless-stair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?p=2328","title":{"rendered":"Chris Barkley publishes debut novel, The Man on the Endless Stair"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>We are delighted that former student Chris Barkley has published his debut novel <em>The Man on the Endless Stair,<\/em>\u00a0described in the Times as \u2018an eerie, deeply atmospheric tale of hidden treasure and trauma.\u2019 A tense and atmospheric Scottish island murder mystery, the book is available from Birlinn and in all good bookshops!<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 We are delighted that former student Chris Barkley has published his debut novel The Man on the Endless Stair,\u00a0described in the Times as \u2018an eerie, deeply atmospheric tale of hidden treasure and trauma.\u2019 A tense and atmospheric Scottish island murder mystery, the book is available from Birlinn and in all good bookshops!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni_news","category-publications"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p40Qhf-By","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2381,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?p=2381","url_meta":{"origin":2328,"position":0},"title":"Chris Barkley at the Oxford Centre for Creative Writing","author":"MSt Creative Writing","date":"January 28, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Award-winning novelist and MSt alumnus Chris Barkley will speak at the Oxford Centre for Creative Writing, Kellogg College on Wednesday, February 4th at 5pm. Please see full details below for this event: Creative Writing Seminar SeriesKellogg College Centre for Creative WritingMawby Room, Kellogg College,62 Banbury Road5.00 pm (refreshments) for 5.30\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Alumni News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Alumni News","link":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?cat=15"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chris-Barkley-event.png?fit=1200%2C628&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chris-Barkley-event.png?fit=1200%2C628&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chris-Barkley-event.png?fit=1200%2C628&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chris-Barkley-event.png?fit=1200%2C628&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chris-Barkley-event.png?fit=1200%2C628&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2231,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?p=2231","url_meta":{"origin":2328,"position":1},"title":"The MSt blog is back!","author":"MSt Creative Writing","date":"December 4, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi everyone! After a brief hiatus, the MSt blog is now back with updates from the new course team: Clare, Amal, Kate, Mary Jean and Barney. We're kicking off with an entry from Mary Jean, our new Departmental Lecturer in Poetry. Here is what they have been reading and researching\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;MSt News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"MSt News","link":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1685,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?p=1685","url_meta":{"origin":2328,"position":2},"title":"MSt alumna Hazel Barkworth&#8217;s novel &#8220;Heatstroke&#8221; to be published by Headline Review in 2020","author":"MSt Creative Writing","date":"March 1, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"MSt alumna Hazel Barkworth's debut novel Heatstroke is to be published by Headline Review in 2020. From the Bookseller: \"Headline's sister imprint Headline Review has snapped up the \u201cheady and compulsive\u201d debut novel from Hazel Barkworth in a pre-empt deal. Commissioning editor Frankie Edwards acquired world rights from Lucy Morris\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Alumni News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Alumni News","link":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?cat=15"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1174,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?p=1174","url_meta":{"origin":2328,"position":3},"title":"MSt alumna Sarvat Husain&#8217;s novel &#8220;This Wide Night&#8221; launch, 17th March, Oxford","author":"MSt Creative Writing","date":"February 13, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"MSt alumna\u00a0 Sarvat Hasin's debut novel, \"This Wide Night\" will be launched at Blackwell's Bookshop in Oxford on 17th March 2017. \"A retelling of Louisa May Alcott's 'Little Women', but transported to 1970s Karachi, this stunning new novel presents a quiet, seething world of four women in the subcontinent. Sarvat\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Alumni News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Alumni News","link":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?cat=15"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.evbuc.com\/https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.evbuc.com%2Fimages%2F28279769%2F185385195640%2F1%2Foriginal.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.evbuc.com\/https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.evbuc.com%2Fimages%2F28279769%2F185385195640%2F1%2Foriginal.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.evbuc.com\/https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.evbuc.com%2Fimages%2F28279769%2F185385195640%2F1%2Foriginal.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.evbuc.com\/https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.evbuc.com%2Fimages%2F28279769%2F185385195640%2F1%2Foriginal.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1500,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?p=1500","url_meta":{"origin":2328,"position":4},"title":"MSt alumna Stephanie Scott&#8217;s novel &#8220;The Sentence&#8221; to be published in 2019","author":"MSt Creative Writing","date":"June 20, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"MSt alumna Stephanie Scott's novel \"The Sentence\" is to be published in 2019 by\u00a0Weidenfeld & Nicholson in June 2019 (U.K. & Commonwealth)\u00a0and by Doubleday in Spring 2020 (USA &Canada). Read about it at The Literary Consultancy, The Bookseller (\" 'touching' Japanese) debut\"). The novel was the runner up for the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Alumni News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Alumni News","link":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?cat=15"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/literaryconsultancy.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Stephanie-Scott.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1035,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?p=1035","url_meta":{"origin":2328,"position":5},"title":"MSt tutor Helen Marshall&#8217;s novel &#8220;Everything that is born&#8221; to be published by Random House, Canada","author":"MSt Creative Writing","date":"May 20, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"MSt tutor Helen Marshall's debut novel, Everything that is born, \"the story of a girl who, after her younger sister drowns in a terrible storm, is determined to steal the body so she can discover for herself what dying means in a time of extraordinary transformation\" is to be published\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;MSt News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"MSt News","link":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.conted.ox.ac.uk\/courses\/infosysfiles\/_Tutors\/Marshall_Helen_7950.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2328"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2561,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2328\/revisions\/2561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}