A memoir from one of Britain's finest novelists and critics, showing how his childhood and early career led to him becoming the writer of Changing Places, Small World and The Art of Fiction.

David Lodge's novels include The British Museum is Falling Down (1965), Changing Places (1975), for which he was awarded the Hawthornden Prize, How Far Can You Go? (1980), which was Whitbread Book of the Year, Small World (1984), which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Nice Work (1988), which won the Sunday Express Book of the Year Award, Thinks... (2001), Author, Author (2004) and, most recently, A Man of Parts (2011). He has also written stage plays and screenplays, and several books of literary criticism, including The Art of Fiction (1992), Consciousness and the Novel (2002)and The Year of Henry James (2007). His works have been translated into 25 languages. He is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at Birmingham and continues to live in that city. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, was awarded a CBE for services to literature and is also a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.