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From the acclaimed Booker Prize–winning author of Last Orders, this highly personal book is a singular and open-spirited account of a writer's life.
In Making an Elephant, Swift brings together richly varied 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.
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 reveals Swift's alertness to experience and his true engagement with words. Introduction
Santa's Clinic: Croydon, 1955
Isaac Babel: Greece, 1967
Greece Again: 1974
Negronis with Alan: Kensington, 1976
Guildhall Farce: 1983
Talking to Patrick: New York and London, 1984-86
Buying a Guitar with Ish: Nagasaki, 1954-60
In the Bamboo Club with Caz: Toronto, 1986
Looking for Ji`´rí Wolf: Prague, 1989
Filming the Fens: Norfolk and Twickenham, 1991
Making an Elephant: Sydenham, 1922-92
Poems
Santa Again: Christmas with Mr Brown, 1989-99
Reading Aloud: Cheltenham and Everywhere, 1991
I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside: Nice, 1997
Fishing with Ted: Devon, 1998
Filming Again, with Fred: Canterbury Cathedral, 2000
Local History and an Interview: Wandsworth, 1851-2005
Michel de Montaigne: Périgord, 1533-92.
In Making an Elephant, Swift brings together richly varied 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.
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 reveals Swift's alertness to experience and his true engagement with words. Introduction
Santa's Clinic: Croydon, 1955
Isaac Babel: Greece, 1967
Greece Again: 1974
Negronis with Alan: Kensington, 1976
Guildhall Farce: 1983
Talking to Patrick: New York and London, 1984-86
Buying a Guitar with Ish: Nagasaki, 1954-60
In the Bamboo Club with Caz: Toronto, 1986
Looking for Ji`´rí Wolf: Prague, 1989
Filming the Fens: Norfolk and Twickenham, 1991
Making an Elephant: Sydenham, 1922-92
Poems
Santa Again: Christmas with Mr Brown, 1989-99
Reading Aloud: Cheltenham and Everywhere, 1991
I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside: Nice, 1997
Fishing with Ted: Devon, 1998
Filming Again, with Fred: Canterbury Cathedral, 2000
Local History and an Interview: Wandsworth, 1851-2005
Michel de Montaigne: Périgord, 1533-92.