Iain Sinclair is a British writer who has lived in Hackney since 1969. His books exploring the myth and matter of London have acquired cult status and include London Orbital (‘sentence for sentence, there is no more interesting writer at work in English,’ Daily Telegraph) and Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire. His novels include Downriver, which won the James Tait Black Prize; Radon Daughters, Landor’s Tower and Dining on Stones. He has also written and presented a number of documentaries. Asylum won the short film prize at the Montreal Festival, and Swandown, a film about his 160-mile journey along the River Thames in a swan pedalo, was released in cinemas across the country in 2012.