OWEN SHEERS is a poet, novelist, playwright and a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Swansea and is one of the most respected British writers of his generation. Among the many prizes he has won are the Somerset Maugham Award for his poetry collection Skirrid Hill (2005), the Hay Festival Medal in the poetry category and the prize for best Welsh book of the year, which he has won twice. Three of his books have been published in Spanish: his first novel, Resistance, was translated into 10 languages and made into a film.