Sid Smith spent the first seven years of his working life in labouring jobs. Since then he has hitchhiked 9,000 miles around the US, acquired a pilot¿s licence for paragliders, and been married with full Shinto rites at a shrine in southern Japan. His first novel, Something Like A House , won the Whitbread First Novel Award and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. His second novel, A House By The River, was published to huge acclaim in 2003. China Dreams is his third novel.