Quoting from the letters, diaries, reviews, and essays of novelists and drawing on their biographies, Schmidt’s The Novel – A Biography (Harvard) invites us into the creative dialogues between authors and between books, and suggests how these dialogues have shaped the development of the novel in English. Michael Schmidt is professor of Poetry at Glasgow University and a writer in residence at St. John’s College, Cambridge. He will be in conversation with Andrew Biswell, Professor of Modern Literature at MMU, Director of the International Anthony Burgess Foundation and author of The Real Life of Anthony Burgess.  Email events@anthonyburgess.org to reserve your place.