Front Row - 04/02/2010

After receiving his first Oscar nomination, in the leading actor category for A Single Man, Colin Firth discusses the film and his wider career. Crime writer David Hewson discusses The Blue Demon, the latest novel in his series featuring Detective Nic Costa, once again set in Italy. He reveals some of the dark underbelly of the country he unearthed in his research. A sculpture by Giacometti, L'Homme Qui Marche 1, has fetched over 65 million pounds at auction. Sarah Thornton, an art market specialist, speculates on why this particular art work has broken all records. The Oxford Companion to the Book is a new two-volume history of the book from ancient to modern times. It is a million words long, with 50 essays and 5,500 alphabetical entries. Lawrence Norfolk and Alex Clark review.