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Novelist, biographer and literary critic DJ Taylor takes a look at the UK’s literary history of the last 100 years, from the battle between traditionalists and modernists to the infighting of the 1930s, the post-war new man and the modern creative writing degrees and media dons.

Taylor explores the many influences on literary life over the last century and how they have shaped our reading preferences. He looks at the taste of highbrow critics and the taste of ordinary book buyers reading the bestsellers of their day. And he looks at the personalities, including the star reviewers, the sniping critics, editors and the Arts Council functionaries. Taylor finds a world that is changing rapidly and one in which writers find it harder to make a living and critical authority is giving way to the world of Twitter, Facebook and the blogosphere.

Taylor writes regularly on books for a host of national newspapers and magazines. He is also a biographer and novelist. His Orwell: the Life won the Whitbread prize for Biography and his most recent novel, The Windsor Faction, was joint winner of the Sidewise Award for Alternate History.