DAMIAN FLANAGAN is a writer, critic and translator. He is an expert in Japanese literature, but has a wide range of interests in the arts, social politics and the media. He wrote his first book, a controversial study of Japan's greatest modern author, Natsume Soseki, in Japanese.

His second book (The Tower of London) told the story of Soseki's experiences in Britain and won the US–Japan Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature. He has also contributed lengthy critical introductions to recent editions of Soseki's masterpieces, The Three-Cornered World, The Gate and Kokoro, as well as to Shusaku Endo's novel Scandal.