A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (Hardback)

A wonderful book ... This book is a delight ... I love the warmth with which he writes about this teaching, and agree wholeheartedly ... All this makes Saunders's book very different from just another "how to" creative writing manual, or just another critical essay ... One of the pleasures of this book is feeling his own thinking move backwards and forwards, between the writer dissecting practice and the reader entering in through the spell of the words, to dwell inside the story' - Tessa Hadley, Guardian'Saunders is such a wise and amiable teacher ... A page-turner' - Robert Webb

'One of the most accurate and beautiful depictions of what it is like to be inside the mind of a writer that I've ever read' - New York Times

'The Russian greats truly shine in this account; but Saunders is the real star. His way of expressing himself is simultaneously supremely intellectual and jovially down-to-earth. It's rare to read a book and love it so much that you think it's simply perfect. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is that book' - Viv Groskop, Spectator

'Joins a long tradition of using Russian literature as a guide to life ... Practical and playful ... it also probes exactly how narrative techniques make us more alert, attentive and sympathetic in reading books and the world around us' - i news

'By the end Saunders is wondering if there is indeed any point in writing at all. I won't spoil his conclusion. Suffice to say, the hairs on the back of my neck were alert' - The Times

'Suffused with wry humour ... Not an academic interpretation, but a reader's companion. I was pleasurably absorbed from start to finish' - Evening Standard