Joe Barber-Starkey was born in England in 1918. He spent nearly all his life on Vancouver Island working in municipal and environmental engineering. After retirement he spent ten years as a volunteer guide for school programs at the Royal BC Museum. He has written two children's books, Jason and the Sea Otter (Harbour, 1997) and Jason's New Dugout Canoe (Harbour, 2000). The former, illustrated by Paul Montpellier of Vancouver, is a realistic story of a modern Indigenous boy on the West Coast who befriends the first sea otter to return to his area in 150 years.

[BCBW 2003] "Kidlit"