Barry was born in 1950 in Stoke-on-Trent and has spent most of his working life as a film projectionist. He had a typical secondary-school education and entered the cinema industry at the age of fourteen. After joining the Staffordshire Regiment when he was twenty, he saw three tours of duty in Northern Ireland, at the height of the troubles, before being selected as Chief Garrison Projectionist in Osnabruck, Germany. After leaving the army in 1977, he was employed as Chief Projectionist at the Plaza Cinema in Stoke-on-Trent where he met his wife Angela. When the cinema closed down in 1980 they moved to Gloucester and for several years he worked as a Stage Manager at the Olympus Theatre in Gloucester until he had the opportunity to return to his first love, film projection. Following redundancy in 2011, he retired and decided to finish this novel.