Barrington John Bayley is best known for being an inventive science fiction writer, whose works in both novel and short story form weave profound metaphysical topics with more traditional science fictional fare.

Barrington Bayley was born in Birmingham. Most commonly described as "underrated" or "visionary", he has been cited as an influence by writers as well known as Brian Stableford and Bruce Sterling. A long-time friend of Michael Moorcock, who gave him a great deal of early exposure in his role as editor of New Worlds in the 1960s and 1970s, Barrington Bayley was a member of threesome including Moorcock and J G Ballard which plotted to overthrow traditional science fiction. Of the three, Bayley was perhaps the most inventive and the least successful. He is most commonly accused of poor character development and sloppy writing, but as a trade-off for stimulating, pyrotechnic, men's own adventure space opera, these short-comings are easy to absorb.

Barrington Bayley died October 13 2008.