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Paul Torday is a British writer and the author of the comic novel, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. The book was the winner of the 2007 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic writing A real pig's cheer | News | Guardian Unlimited Books and was serialised on BBC Radio 4. It won the Waverton Good Read Award in 2008.

Born in 1946 and educated at Pembroke College, Oxford, Torday only turned to fiction-writing later in life, and his first novel was published at the age of 59. Prior to that he was a successful businessman living in Northumberland. The inspiration for the novel stemmed from Torday's interest in both fly fishing and the Middle East. From these two strands, he weaves a political satire that centres around the world of political spin management.

His second novel is entitled The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce, rebranded under its original title of Bordeaux in the United States, and is about a man who drinks himself to death.

In 2008 he was nominated for Best Newcomer at the Galaxy British Book Awards.

Torday's third book The Girl on the Landing was published in 2009. This novel deals principally with the themes of schizophrenia and racism.

• Interview with Torday

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Paul Torday", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0