For seven years he worked in labouring jobs, including dustman, gardener, gravedigger and construction worker.
The tale of a British deserter in China at the time of the Cultural Revolution, Something Like a House won critical praise and went on to win both the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Whitbread First Novel Award.
Smith says that his only previous contact with China had been a "one-hour stopover at Hong Kong airport".
Smith was married with full Shinto rites to Chieko Nomura at a shrine in Southern Japan.
[5] Nisbet Chronicles Smith is also a poet and short story writer on a variety of topics.