Possession

A. S. Byatt is internationally acclaimed as a novelist, short story writer and critic. Educated at York and Newnham College, Cambridge, she taught at the Central School of Art and Design, and was Senior lecturer in English at University College, London, before becoming a full-time writer in 1983. She was appointed CBE in 1990 and DBE in 1999. Her most recent novel is The Children's Book. ABOUT THE INTRODUCER: Novelist, critic and journalist Philip Hensher was named one of Granta's Best 20 Young British Novelists in 2003. His 1996 novel, Kitchen Venom, won the Somerset Maugham Award, and The Northern Clemency was shortlisted for the 2008 Booker Prize. Other novels include Lulu, The Mulberry Empire and, most recently, King of the Badgers.