An award-winning writer and broadcaster, Howard Jacobson was born in Manchester in 1942, brought up in Prestwich and was educated at Stand Grammar School in Whitefield, and Downing College, Cambridge, where he studied under F R Leavis.

He lectured for three years at the University of Sydney before returning to teach at Selwyn College, Cambridge.

His books include The Mighty Walzer (1999), winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize; Kalooki Nights (2006), longlisted for the Man Booker Prize; and The Finkler Question (2010), winner of the Man Booker Prize. His most recent, J, is shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2014.

Howard Jacobson lives in London.