Graham Swift

Wendy Wheeler (London Metropolitan University); Revised By: Anastasia Logotheti (Deree-The American College of Greece)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

Born 4 May 1949
Activity 1980-ongoing

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Novelist

Resources

Swift's Works

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Graham Swift was born in South East London in May 1949. He was educated at Dulwich College (as were C. S. Forrester, P. G. Wodehouse and Raymond Chandler) and at Cambridge University where he read English and became acquainted with the Fens, the setting for his novel,

Waterland

. After leaving Cambridge, Swift spent three years at the University of York researching a PhD thesis on “The City in Nineteenth Century English Literature”. However, he had wished to be a writer since adolescence and so abandoned his academic career in order to pursue this ambition. After one year of teaching English in Greece, he returned to London and taught O and A level English at Colleges of Further Education in order to finance his writing. He now lives in South West London with his partner, Candice Rodd.…

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7065 words

Citation: Wheeler, Wendy, Anastasia Logotheti. "Graham Swift". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 April 2001; last revised 07 September 2016. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5071, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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