S&S releases Graham Swift backlist in audio

Simon & Schuster UK has released a selection of titles from Graham Swift's backlist in audio for the first time. 

Narrated by actor Alex Jennings (pictured), Waterland, Light of Day, Ever After and Out of this World are now available in audio, with further titles slated for release in 2022. 

The publisher acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to Swift’s entire body of work across all formats in 2018, including the 1996 Booker Prize-winner Last Orders (originally Picador) which was re-released as an audiobook in 2019, narrated by a cast of actors led by "Quadrophenia" and "Vera Drake" star Phil Davis.

Swift is the author of 11 novels, two collections of short stories and a book of essay portraits, poetry and reflections on his life in writing. Mothering Sunday was adapted for the big screen and released earlier this month, starring Olivia Colman, Odessa Young, Colin Firth and Josh O'Connor. It also won the Hawthornden Prize for best work of imaginative literature, while Waterland won the Guardian Fiction Prize. His work has appeared in more than 30 languages. 

Commenting on the new audio releases, Swift said: "I’m delighted that this programme of audio releases is now beginning and it’s wonderful to have, in Alex Jennings, a great actor-reader inhabiting my books with such rapport, intelligence and commitment. It’s thrilling to revisit my work through his voice."

Jennings added: "I jumped at the chance to record these four wonderful novels by Graham Swift. Previously I had only read the extraordinary Waterland, which is up there with the best of Dickens. Swift’s evocation of place and character is so rich and true and unsettling. A great writer! To read, re-read, and record these brilliantly original and varied novels was a huge privilege and pleasure"