Graham Swift Books in Order
Graham Swift has written 17 books, published between 1980 and 2025. The first book is The Sweet Shop Owner (1980) and the newest is Twelve Post-War Tales (2025). Publication order is the reading order below.
- Books
- 17
- Published
- 1980–2025
- Pages on record
- 4,781 in 16 of 17 books
- Reading time
- 80–120 hours
Reading time is an estimate, not a recorded figure: 4,781 pages at 300 words a page, read at 200–300 words a minute, covering the 16 of 17 titles with a page count on record.
Graham Colin Swift FRSL, born 4 May 1949, is an English novelist, poet and short story writer. The Sweet Shop Owner (1980) was Swift's debut novel, and Shuttlecock (1981) won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize in 1983. Waterland (1983) took the Guardian Fiction Prize, the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize and the Grinzane Cavour Prize, and reached the Booker Prize shortlist. Out of This World followed in 1988. The catalogue records 17 Swift books through Twelve Post-War Tales (2025), including Last Orders (1996) and The Light of Day (2003).
How many Graham Swift books are there?
Graham Swift has 17 books, released between 1980 and 2025.
Graham Swift Books in Publication Order
The table lists all 17 Graham Swift books in the order they were published, with the release year, the page count where one is on record, and how many independent book listings confirm each title. Catalogue data as of September 2026.
- 1The Sweet Shop Owner1980 · 224 pages · confirmed 1/419802241/4
- 2Shuttlecock1981 · 224 pages · confirmed 1/419812241/4
- 3Learning to Swim1982 · 189 pages · confirmed 1/419821891/4
- 4Waterland1983 · 368 pages · confirmed 1/419833681/4
- 5Out of This World1988 · 208 pages · confirmed 1/419882081/4
- 6Ever After1992 · 275 pages · confirmed 1/419922751/4
- 7Last Orders1996 · 352 pages · confirmed 1/419963521/4
- 8Waterland / Last Orders1999 · 672 pages · confirmed 1/419996721/4
- 9The Light of Day2003 · 336 pages · confirmed 1/420033361/4
- 10Making An Elephant2004 · 400 pages · confirmed 1/420044001/4
- 11Tomorrow2007 · 255 pages · confirmed 1/420072551/4
- 12Wish You Were Here2011 · 352 pages · confirmed 1/420113521/4
- 13Chemistry2012 · confirmed 1/42012–1/4
- 14England2014 · 237 pages · confirmed 1/420142371/4
- 15Mothering Sunday2016 · 177 pages · confirmed 1/420161771/4
- 16Here We Are2020 · 208 pages · confirmed 1/420202081/4
- 17Twelve Post-War Tales2025 · 304 pages · confirmed 1/420253041/4
Graham Swift books grouped by series
Each title below is a row in the publication-order table above. None of these groups has a reading-order page of its own on this site.
Standalone books
17 books17 Graham Swift titles here are not listed as part of any series.
Do you have to read Graham Swift books in order?
No. No source lists any of the 17 Graham Swift books here as part of a series. The numbered table above gives them by publication date.
Where to start with Graham Swift
Start with The Sweet Shop Owner (1980), the earliest published title.
What is the newest Graham Swift book?
Twelve Post-War Tales (2025) is the newest Graham Swift book released so far.
Is there a new Graham Swift book coming?
No next Graham Swift book is announced in the catalogue, which is a gap in the listings it merges rather than a sign that the run has ended.
Awards Graham Swift has won
Wikidata records 5 awards and 2 nominations for Graham Swift. Each row states whether the title won or was shortlisted, and the year the award was given.
- Hawthornden Prize2017Won
- James Tait Black Memorial Prize1996Won
- Booker Prize1996Wonfor Last Orders
- Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize1983Won
- Guardian Fiction Prize1983Won
- Booker Prize2003Shortlistedfor The Light of Day
- Booker Prize1983Shortlistedfor Waterland
Graham Swift at a glance
- Still publishing
- Graham Swift published a book as recently as 2025.
- Release pace
- Graham Swift books have appeared about one every 3 years on average.
- Length
- 4,781 pages across the 16 of 17 books with a recorded length, a median of 265 pages each.
- Busiest decade
- Most Graham Swift books, 5 of 17, were published in the 1980s.
What the Graham Swift books are about
15 of the 17 Graham Swift books carry subject tags in Open Library's catalogue. The subjects below are the ones that recur across them, most frequent first: england is tagged on 5 of 15. The subjects are cataloguers’ headings, not a plot summary.
- England 5 of 15 books
- Autobiographical memory 2 of 15 books
- Death 2 of 15 books
- Family life 2 of 15 books
- Fathers and daughters 2 of 15 books
- Fiction - General 2 of 15 books
- FICTION / Literary 2 of 15 books
- Historical fiction 2 of 15 books
- History teachers 2 of 15 books
- Man-woman relationships 2 of 15 books
- Marriage 2 of 15 books
- Mentally ill women 2 of 15 books