David Swann was born in Lancashire, and worked as a local newspaper reporter in the last days of hot metal. Later, he graduated to become a toilet cleaner at the legendary Paradiso night club in Amsterdam before returning to the UK to work as a Writer in Residence in a prison.

Swann is now a senior lecturer in the English Department at the University of Chichester. His stories and poems have been widely published and won many awards, including five successes in The Bridport Prize. His debut collection of short fiction, The Last Days of Johnny North, was published by Elastic Press in 2006, and he is now working on a trilogy of novels as well as a collection of one-page stories. He divides his time between Brighton and Hove.

Swann’s ambition is to tell people he’s from Accrington and not hear the word ‘Stanley’ in their reply.