Graham Swift

British Library acquires Graham Swift archive

Archive includes messages left on 1996 Booker night

12 March 2009

The British Library (London) has acquired the archive of Booker Prize winner Graham Swift. Swift won the Booker Prize in 1996 with his novel Last Orders, and was also shortlisted for the prize in 1983 with his novel Waterland.

The collection includes 75 file boxes containing manuscripts, notes, revisions and proofs relating to all eight of his novels, dating back to Swift's early work from the 1970s. Among the more unusual items in the archive is a tape recording of the answer phone messages he received on the night he won the Booker Prize in 1996, including messages from fellow authors congratulating him on his win.

The archive also includes professional correspondence with fellow Booker Prize winners Pat Barker, Kazuo Ishiguro and Michael Ondaatje, as well as personal letters from Poet Laureates Andrew Motion and Ted Hughes.   

Jamie Andrews, Head of Modern Literary Manuscripts at the British Library, said

 "The archive of Graham Swift is a major addition to our manuscript collections. His rich and well-worked notes and drafts will enable significant insights into Swift's way of working, while the correspondence and non-fiction work reveal much about his biography and position in relation to literary culture and academia."

An interview with Graham Swift and Jamie Andrews (Head of Modern Literary Manuscripts, British Libary) is available on the British Library website.

This acquisition complements the British Library's existing collections of contemporary novelists' archives, and ensures that this treasure trove of research material, once catalogued, will be readily accessible to researchers through the Library's Reading Rooms at St Pancras.

The Man Booker Prize Fiction at its finest