FRANCIS KING\'s first three novels were published while he was still an undergraduate at Oxford, and since then he has won many prizes for his work, among them the Somerset Maugham Prize, the Katherine Mansfield Short Story Prize, and the Yorkshire Post Novel of the Year Award for his widely acclaimed Act of Darkness. Born in Switzerland, Francis King spent his childhood in India and his non-fiction includes E.M Forster and His World and Florence: A Literary Companion. For many years he was drama critic for the Sunday Telegraph. He has now passed away.