Throughout his childhood and youth David Reynolds kept an eye on the past, entranced by family stories from Victorian London - the music halls, the romances, the strange disappearance of his grandfather - even as he himself came of age in the vibrant 1960s. In Swan River he describes both worlds with great vitality and sympathy, and shows how a child's puzzled interest in his forebears deepens into an adult's understanding of human nature. Swan River was shortlisted for the PEN/Ackerley prize for Autobiography.