 He holds a PhD in Applied linguistics from the University of Hull, and has worked as a university teacher at Corunna in Spain as well as at York in England, but since 2005 has been a full-time writer, living in northern Spain.Barlow's early books could be described as comic historical; they combine elements of farce, black humour, magical realism and folklore in what critics have described as an unusual mixture.They are strongly rooted in his Yorkshire background.