Swallowed By a Whale: How to Survive the Writing Life

This new title from British Library Publishing answers budding writers’ and readers’ burning questions on the writing process, from philosophical outlooks to practical advice. It covers an extremely wide range of genres including adult fiction bestsellers, children’s authors and illustrators, poets, essayists and biographers.

“Fiction was invented the day Jonah arrived home and told his wife that he was three days late because he had been swallowed by a whale.” – Gabriel García Márquez

In this specially-commissioned anthology, sixty accomplished authors share secrets and insights into their writing lives: on their inspirations, methods, wild ideas and daily routines; on the pleasure and the pain in achieving their literary goals; on how they started out and how they hope to continue. They outline some golden rules for staying on track and talk candidly about what goes wrong as well as right. We hear from novelists, poets, biographers, and children’s writers; illustrators, campaigners, teachers, mothers, husbands, an entrepreneur turned surfboard shaper, a quantum physicist, an opera librettist, and a Laureate who loves dragons. All writers. Swallowed by a Whale includes contributions from: Kwame Alexander, Anthony Browne, Cressida Cowell, Isabelle Dupuy, Inua Ellams, Lev Grossman, Joanne Harris, Catherine Johnson, Thomas Keneally, Neal Layton, David Mitchell, Beverley Naidoo, Chibundu Onuzo, Chris Riddell, Francesca Simon, Novuyo Rosa Tshuma, Raynor Winn and many more.

Huw Lewis-Jones is an author, teacher, naturalist and polar expedition leader whose work has been published in many languages. His past books include Ocean Portraits, In Search of the South Pole, The Conquest of Everest and Explorers' Sketchbooks. His most recent edited collections are the acclaimed The Writer's Map: An Atlas of Imaginary Lands and Archipelago: An Atlas of Imagined Islands.