Open Book - 16/08/2009

Muriel Gray talks to novelist Diana Evans, who won the Orange Award for New Writers in 2005 with her first book, 26a. She explains how her early experience as a dancer inspired her new novel The Wonder, about an all-black dance troupe in 1960s Notting Hill. Is writing bad for your health? Peter Kemp joins Muriel to reveal how the sedentary existence of the novelist can conceal major risks and outlines some of the surprising injuries caused by the literary life. Novelist Patrick Gale offers advice to an Open Book listener who's looking for gay fiction that isn't depressing or about teenagers. And reading dictionaries for fun: author of Schott's Miscellany Ben Schott, writer Kevin Jackson and editor of Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable Camilla Rockwood reveal why they enjoy curling up with a reference book.