Open Book - 21/02/2010

Mariella Frostrup is joined by a writer who has pursued an unusual dual career. The poet and essayist Thomas Lynch is also a funeral director, running a successful business in rural Michigan which was set up by his father. He talks about his first collection of stories, Apparition and Late Fictions, and explains how his daily proximity to death has affected his approach to life. There's also advice for an Open Book listener who has found it difficult to concentrate on reading since a bereavement 15 years ago. The director of the Reader Organisation Jane Davis makes some suggestions. The historian Lucy Moore celebrates the biting satire of Anita Loos, the author of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, as the film it inspired is rereleased. Michele Roberts picks out some of the best new French fiction, including books by the enormously successful Anna Gavalda and the 2008 Nobel Laureate JMG Le Clézio.