In the week of the Guardian first book award 2010, we go to the ceremony at London's Victoria and Albert Museum to listen in on the announcement. We hear from the winner, Alexandra Harris, about how she reshaped a doctoral thesis into a prize-winning book. She explains why she is so fascinated by English culture between the wars, and how cooking and gardening are as much a part of the artistic landscape for her as art and literature.
In a rare interview with Alan Bennett, we hear how having cancer put a new energy into his writing, how he is finally happy to talk about his sexuality, and why he couldn't have done so before his parents died.
We also discover what a group of Bristol sixth formers thought of Russell Hoban when they came to hear him talk to the Guardian book club about his 30-year-old classic of speculative fiction, Riddley Walker.
Reading list
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban (Bloomsbury)
Romantic Moderns: English Writers, Artists and the Imagination from Virginia Woolf to John Piper by Alexandra Harris (Thames & Hudson)
A Life Like Other People's by Alan Bennett (Faber)
