Andrew Cowan was born in Corby and educated at Beanfield Comprehensive and the University of East Anglia. His first novel, PIG, won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the Betty Trask Award, the Ruth Hadden Memorial Prize, the Author's Club First Novel Award and a Scottish Council Book Award. He is also the author of COMMON GROUND and CRUSTACEANS, which was published to critical acclaim in 2001. He lives in Norwich with the writer Lynne Bryan and their daughter, Rose, and has recently been appointed Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at UEA.