GRAHAM SWIFT was born in 1949 and is the author of eleven novels, three collections of short stories, and Making an Elephant, a book of essays, portraits, poetry, and reflections on his life in writing. With Waterland, he won The Guardian Fiction Award, and with Last Orders, the Booker Prize. Mothering Sunday became a worldwide bestseller and won the Hawthornden Prize. His work has appeared in more than thirty-five languages