Reading novelist Graham Swift's first work of nonfiction, Making an Elephant, is pure indulgence—like hearing a favorite uncle tell tales of his marvelous youth. In this collection of essays, poems, interviews, and reminiscences, Swift tells of fly-fishing with Ted Hughes, beer-drinking with Caryl Phillips, and charades with Salman Rushdie, as he muses about the intricate art of writing fiction and about the "intensely sweet" privations of the literary life.