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• Date: 22 November 2000
• Type: mp3
• Length: 82mins 27secs

Why is biography so popular a form in the English-speaking world? What are its advantages and dangers? Is it true that in the case of biographies of writers and other artists, interest in the life tends to eclipse serious discussion of the work? Katherine Bucknell chairs a discussion with Hilary Spurling and Jeremy Treglown. They consider the rise of the individual, why biography is so popular in Britain, the need for discretion or sensitivity when writing a biography and the influence of the subject of the biography on the biographer.