Swift, Graham (1949– )

English novelist. His first two novels, The Sweet-Shop Owner (1980) and Shuttlecock (1981), earned him a reputation as one of the most promising English novelists of his generation. He won wide critical acclaim with his third novel, Waterland (1983). Its theme – the struggle to understand and come to terms with the past – is central to his other novels, such as Last Orders (1996), which won the Booker Prize for Fiction.

His other books include the novels Out of This World (1988), Ever After (1992), The Light of Day (2003), and the collection of short stories Learning to Swim (1982).