Swift, Graham
Swift, Graham ( 1949 – ),English novelist, born in London. He studied at Queens’ College, Cambridge, and worked as a part-time teacher in and around London for much of the 1970s. There is a didactic strain in many of Swift's novels, and their themes frequently pertain to history and its bearing upon the present lives of his troubled and questioning characters. His first novel, The Sweet Shop Owner ( 1980 ), was a low-key and melancholy portrait of an emotionally unfulfilled shopkeeper in the last few hours of his life. It was followed by Shuttlecock ( 1981 ), which features an archetypal Swift protagonist: a police archivist whose work leads him to dig up wartime secrets which cast doubt on the integrity of his father and also, by extension, himself. Learning to Swim ( 1982 ) was a versatile collection of short stories. With Waterland ( 1984 ), Swift produced what many consider to be his finest...
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