Front Row - 22/04/2009

Comedian Natalie Haynes reviews a revival of the TV comedy classic Reggie Perrin about a suburban middle-manager and his repetitive routine, with Martin Clunes taking on the role made famous by Leonard Rossiter in the '70s. The writer James Patterson was the biggest-selling hardback fiction author last year, and is the most borrowed author from UK libraries. James Patterson discusses his new literacy initiative and the nine hardbacks he's publishing this year. In his last audio diary as judge of the Art Fund prize for the best museum or gallery in the UK, Grayson Perry reports from the Ruthin Craft Centre in Denbighshire, Orleans House in Richmond and the Sackler Centre for Education at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The novelist Elizabeth Taylor has long been over shadowed by her more celebrated Hollywood namesake, but many believe her to be one of Britain's great unsung literary talents. Her biographer Nicola Beauman and writer Phillip Hensher talk to Mark about why Taylor has suffered relative neglect as a writer, and the problems faced by literary biographers.