Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts on 12 March 2009.

A rich collection of essays, portraits, poetry and interviews that deal with the author's life and his inspirations as a writer. A very personal book and his first ever work of non-fiction.

Synopsis

As a novelist Graham Swift delights in the possibilities of the human voice, imagining his way into the minds and hearts of an extraordinary range of characters. In Making an Elephant  the voice is his own. As generous in its scope as it is acute in its observations, this highly personal book is a singular and open-spirited account of a writer’s life.

Swift brings together a richly varied selection of essays, portraits, poetry and interviews, full of insights into his passions and motivations, and wise about the friends, family and other writers who have mattered to him over the years. Kazuo Ishiguro advises on how to choose a guitar, Salman Rushdie arrives for Christmas under guard, and Ted Hughes shares the secrets of a Devon river. There are private moments, too, with long-dead writers, as well as musings on history and memory that readers of Swift’s novels will recognize and love.

A journey through place and time, Making an Elephant  is a book of encounters, between a son and his father, between an author and his younger selves, between writer and reader, and between friends. It brims with charm and candour, and tells of alertness to experience and a true engagement with words, in short, with what it means to feel that writing and reading are an essential part of living.

About the Author

Booker-Prize-winning novelist Graham Swift was born in London in 1949. Educated at Dulwich College, Queens' College, Cambridge, and York University, he was selected as one of the 20 'Best of Young British Novelists' in 1983. He is the author of six novels and has won the Geoffrey Faber and the James Tait Black Memorial prizes, as well as the Guardian Fiction Prize. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and lives in London. Photo Copyright Ekko von Schwichow More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation