The Book Café - 18/10/2010

Writer of The Guardian's Digested Reads column John Crace has now turned his attention to 100 classic books from the last century. He'll be revealing the tricks of writing a successful parody and explaining why, more than being simply a bit of fun, it's a much underestimated way of getting to grips with the essence of a book. The popularity of historical fiction continues undiminished so we'll be talking to Robyn Young, writer of the hugely successful Brethren trilogy, about carving out a niche for herself in the genre and asking her why she seems to revel in writing particularly gory battle scenes. Even as they waited for rescue 2000 ft underground the rights to the story of the Chilean miners were being fought over at the Frankfurt Book Fair. What, if anything, does this haste to buy up a story before the end is clear tell us about the publishing industry just now? And this autumn we're spoiled for choice with the publication of various writers' Collected Letters - we've had Bruce Chatwin, Philip Larkin and have Saul Bellow still to come. Personal letters give a vivid sense of the writer's voice and sometimes reveal the odd secret, but they're only half a conversation, are packed with detail and often require explanation. John Crace, who's just 'digested' Larkin's Letters to Monica for The Guardian, and Rosemary Goring, Literary Editor of The Herald, will be debating how much fun Collected Letters actually are to read.