Caryl Phillips was born in St Kitts and now lives in London and New York. He has written for television, radio, theatre and cinema and is the author of three works of non-fiction and seven novels. Crossing the River was shortlisted for the 1993 Booker Prize and he has won the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, as well as being named the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year 1992 and one of the Best of Young British Writers 1993. His most recent book was A Distant Shore which won the 2004 Commonwealth Writers Prize
It is a lovely novel, psychologically astute and rich in period detail, and the best thing Caryl Phillips has written - Max Davidson, Sunday Telegraph This is a tragic story with not a word wasted, raised to an elegiac level by Phillips's supple, controlled prose Sunday Independent A subtle and poignant novel... A fine and beautifully nuanced performance Sunday Times A compassionate portrait of an enigmatic figure... Written with Phillips's trademark understated elegance The Times Phillips has brilliantly resurrected a bitter-sweet life... Without a doubt Phillips' most accomplished novel Time Out