Open Book - 20/12/2009

Mariella Frostrup talks to the crime writer Mark Billingham about one of his inspirations. As a new big-screen adaptation of Sherlock Holmes reaches our cinemas, he and the crime writing expert Barry Forshaw discuss Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's enduring creation and his impact on every crime writer since. There's advice for a listener eager to read fiction set in the Middle Ages from the novelist Kevin Crossley-Holland. And Melissa Katsoulis and Suzi Feary look back at an eventful decade in the world of books and pick out some publishing highlights in the year to come.