Abstract
Although shorter than its predecessors, Mothering Sunday (2016), Graham Swift's latest novel to date, in a sense represents a noteworthy synthesis of its author's works of fiction. Using a close third-person narrative perspective, it confirms Swift's departure from first-person narrators which began in Wish You Were Here (2011).
However, in terms of some of his idiosyncratic themes and narrative strategies, it more strongly follows his earlier novels, The Light of Day (2003) in particular. This article discusses Mothering Sunday's position within the body of Swift's novels and shows that by making the heroine a successful writer he more forcefully than ever before explores the theme of writing fiction.
It also argues that the novel contains a significant degree of self-reflexivity as Swift projects in the story of its central protagonist his crucial ideas and beliefs concerning creative writing and its ethics.