As the first literary awards of the new year are announced, we catch up with the author of the Costa biography of the year, Lucy Hughes-Hallett. The Pike is the story of Gabriele d'Annunzio, an Italian wunderkind who announced his own death as a teenage poet and went on, in the aftermath of the first world war, to set up a colony in what is now Croatia. Hughes-Hallett explains why she was drawn to the "poet, seducer and preacher of war", and how he challenged her to find a new form of biographical storytelling.
We also welcome the Bookseller's Benedicte Page, to help us round up the best books coming in 2014 and take a look at what the new year holds for the publishing industry.
Reading list
The Pike: Poet, Seducer and Preacher of War by Lucy Hughes-Hallett (Fourth Estate).
