Francine Prose argues passionately that the essential task for people who want to learn to write is reading – reading good books, and reading them well. ‘Above all,’ Louise Doughty wrote in the Guardian, ‘Prose’s forthright, waspish and often very funny book is a plea to all writers for vigour and clarity, one which encourages them to tend to the details of technique, and the mastery of language, as closely as they tend to their own ambition. It demands that they love literature as much as they want the literary world to love them.’

Union Books | Paperback 304 pp. |ISBN: 9781908526076