The Book You Need to Read to Write the Book You Want to Write

Sarah Burton's publications include two biographies, Impostors: Six Kinds of Liar (Penguin, 2000) and A Double Life: a Biography of Charles and Mary Lamb (Penguin, 2003, shortlisted for the Mind Book of the Year award); a children's book, The Miracle in Bethlehem: A Storyteller's Tale (2008); and a page-to-stage guide, How to Put on a Community Play (2011). Her novel, The Strange Adventures of H (Legend Press, 2020) was shortlisted for the 2021 Historical Fiction Writers' debut fiction award. With Jem Poster, she co-founded Cambridge University's master's programme in creative writing and is co-author of The Book You Need to Read to Write the Book You Want to Write (Cambridge University Press, 2022). Together, Sarah and Jem run a mentoring service for writers, Between the Lines. Jem Poster is the author of two novels, Courting Shadows (Sceptre, 2002) and Rifling Paradise (Sceptre, 2006), as well as a collection of poetry, Brought to Light (Bloodaxe, 2001). He edited volume III of the six-volume Oxford University Press Edward Thomas: Prose Writings (2018). With Sarah Burton, he co-founded Cambridge University's master's programme in creative writing and is co-author of The Book You Need to Read to Write the Book You Want to Write (Cambridge University Press, 2022). Together, Jem and Sarah run a mentoring service for writers, Between the Lines.

'I can't imagine there are any better books on the subject than this one.' Louis de Bernières

• 1. Getting started; 2. Memory and imagination; 3. Character; 4. Plot and structure I; 5. Plot and structure II; 6. Form and length; 7. Dialogue; 8. Narrative viewpoint and narrative voice; 9. Beginnings and endings; tension and pace; 10. Description; 11. Research; 12. Drawing it all together; 13. Publication and the writing life.