Sculptor Antony Gormley and Professor of French literature, Catriona Seth discuss Victor Hugo's visual art with Tom Sutcliffe. Victor Hugo was a 19th century cultural colossus, known for monumental works such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Miserables as well as his poems, plays and political writings. It's not so well known that throughout his career Hugo drew with pen and ink - the same tools he wrote with - creating some 4,000 pictures. The Royal Academy has gathered together about 70 of these in its exhibition 'Astonishing Things: The Drawings of Victor Hugo'.
Julian Barnes, one of our greatest living novelists, talks about his latest nonfiction book Changing My Mind. A series of essays published today by Notting Hill Editions, it ponders moments in his life when he's reconsidered long-held views, from memories and politics to words and the writing of EM Forster.
Bestselling author Emma Donoghue is known for her novel Room. She talks about mixing in real life characters to her latest work of fiction The Paris Express, which was inspired by seeing a surreal photograph of a nineteenth century French railway disaster.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Claire Bartleet
