About Steve Barker the author

I’m Steve Barker, a British Army veteran and military thriller author based in Shanklin on the Isle of Wight. The cliffs, sea fog and tight lanes of this coastal town sit behind almost every page I write: real ground, real people, real consequences.

Growing up in this rugged, windswept corner of England hard-wired a respect for terrain, weather and the quiet moments before a storm breaks. Those same elements now frame my military thrillers and war poetry—the shifting skies, the changing sea, the stillness before contact.

In 1979, I answered a different kind of call and enlisted in the British Army, joining the Royal Green Jackets in Winchester. Discipline, camaraderie and field training there forged the mindset I still use today: plan hard, move quiet, commit fully.

By 1982 I was serving with 3RGJ in Cambridge, gaining operational experience you don’t shake off. Firefights, field exercises, leadership decisions under pressure—those 

,memories now drive the way I build missions, characters and consequences on the page. I left the Army in 1989; the uniform went back, but the lessons, scars and stories stayed. When you step into the Covert-Ops universe and follow Steve “S3” Barker into the field, you’re reading a veteran’s perspective, not theory.

 After service, the first books I wrote didn’t start with a firefight; they started at sea. Inspired by my time in uniform and a lifelong urge to travel, I dived into writing my first two cruising books—part travel memoir, part practical guide for life aboard.

Those early titles chart cruise ships like floating forward bases: new ports, unfamiliar cultures, different routines. I take readers onto the decks, through the corridors and ashore into foreign streets with vivid, story-driven scenes and clear, no-nonsense advice.

If you enjoy cruising holidays and want travel writing with a veteran’s eye for detail, those books are where you climb the gangway and begin the journey with me.

My writing took a new heading at Combat Stress in April 2019. In the middle of therapy sessions, sleepless nights and blunt self-reflection, I wrote Poetry from the PTSD Mind—a brutally honest collection about living with military PTSD as a British veteran.

Those poems read like after-action reports from inside the head: flashpoints, panic, guilt, anger and the stubborn drive to keep going. They became more than pages; they turned into a voice for veterans’ mental health, trauma recovery and resilience.

Readers called it a powerful exploration of anxiety, depression and hope after war, and it found its place among veteran poetry and mental health awareness books. That period ignited my love of storytelling in a new way. I discovered I could deliver short, hard-hitting pieces that tackle grief, healing, family, service and survival with the same honesty you’d hear in a late-night barrack-room conversation.

If you’re searching for authentic PTSD poetry or looking for veteran mental health support through words that don’t flinch, Poetry from the PTSD Mind is where my journey—and your path to understanding—begins.

 The 2020 global lockdown shut down normal life and opened up a new battlespace on the page. In that strange, static year, I lit the fuse on the Covert-Ops military thriller series.

First out of the gate came Danger in Paradise: a high-octane special forces adventure of covert insertions, hostile islands and shifting loyalties. Danger on the Island followed, raising the stakes, tightening the net and pushing the team further into the dark.

If you love realistic British special forces action, mission planning under pressure and the tension of covert work in hostile environments, the Covert-Ops series is where you kit up, join the team and deploy on the first operation.

 My latest completed missions are book six in the Covert-Ops series, Shadows of Retribution, and Covert-Ops: Characters and Places, both published in 2025. One is a high-intensity military thriller set in the Australian Outback; the other is a detailed intel dossier for readers who like to know the ground, the kit and the operators.

Together they expand the Covert-Ops universe with British special forces action, layered characters, global conspiracies and cinematic, Tom Clancy–style espionage. Whether you follow Steve Barker’s black-ops missions or run the companion guide beside you to track locations, weapons, vehicles and callsigns, you’ll feel embedded inside the unit.

Alongside Covert-Ops, I write immersive cruise travel narratives, veteran and PTSD poetry, and stand-alone action and suspense fiction—books that move from sunlit decks and contact on the battlefield to the quieter, hard-won moments of recovery and resilience.

Every project is driven by a simple aim: tell authentic stories that respect those who served and give readers a true escape. If you enjoy realistic military thrillers, war poetry, travel books or character-led suspense, explore my full catalogue, join my reader community and step into the next mission with me. Your next unforgettable read—whether a firefight, a poem or a voyage—could start right here.