Robert Lewis was born in the Black Mountains, in the Brecon Beacons, which is by all accounts a beautiful part of the world. He spent his twenties getting sacked, living in bedsits, drinking in the dodgier pubs of various cities, and caring about the wrong things. Most of this is still going on.

He still thinks literature can save him, and he’s thirty one now. He hasn’t seen it save anyone else.

His first novel, The Last Llanelli Train was shortlisted for the PG Wodehouse Bollinger Prize for Comic Writing, along with Zadie Smith and Christopher Brookmyre. His second, Swansea Terminal, has just been long-listed for Wales Book of the Year. His has also written for the Financial Times, Time Out, the Mail on Sunday and the Big Issue, along with a number of trade publications, and he has appeared several times on BBC Radio.