THE BOOK THE Secret Author most enjoyed reading last month was Marcus Berkmann’s illuminating memoir How to be a Writer (Little, Brown £16.99). The title is deceptive.
Rather than producing one of those dreadful self-help manuals full of jauntily-written tips on how to catch the commissioning editor’s eye, Mr Berkmann has simply compiled a chronicle of the 34 years he has spent as a freelance.
The encouragement usually offered to tyros is in painfully short supply: this is an overcrowded profession, he grimly maintains, and the last thing
