Graham Swift, Learning to Swim and Other Stories

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Eleven prose pieces published in Britain in 1982 and three years later in America,

Learning to Swim and Other Stories 

constitute Graham Swift’s first story collection. The material represents early work, that is, published individually in various periodicals and anthologies of new writing between 1977 and 1982. A major contemporary British novelist, Swift is less known for his short fiction: his only other collection,

England and Other Stories

(2014), was published more than thirty years later. Like Swift’s novels, the stories in this collection revolve around families and are concerned with themes which constantly recur in this author’s fiction: contested parent-child relationships, torturing husbands and unfaithful wives, betraying siblings. Swift’s preoccupation with the…

5335 words

Citation: Logotheti, Anastasia. "Learning to Swim and Other Stories". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 August 2004; last revised 29 January 2019. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11972, accessed 29 March 2024.]

11972 Learning to Swim and Other Stories 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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