Marcel Proust was born in Auteuil in 1871. As a young man he became an eminent society figure, frequenting Paris's most exclusive salons. Following the death of his mother, Proust's already poor health began to deteriorate further, and he increasingly withdrew from society. He started writing In Search of Lost Time in 1908 and worked on its seven volumes until his death in 1922, spending the final three years of his life largely confined to a cork-lined bedroom.

Lucy Raitz is a French teacher, writer and sometime literary translator with a long-standing love of Proust's work. She hopes that her version of Un amour de Swann, appearing a hundred years after Proust's death, will give another generation of readers the key to this extraordinary kingdom and the desire to read on. Lucy lives in London with her husband. She has two daughters.