In this week's podcast Simon Callow joins us to discuss his "alternative autobiography", My Life in Pieces, and to answer questions sent in via Twitter on subjects such as his favourite young actors, and how his relationship with Shakespeare's Sonnets has changed over the years. We also listen in to Stephen Fry's launch event for his memoir The Fry Chronicles at London's Festival Hall, which was broadcast to 55 cinemas across the country.
As Fry makes his way up the non-fiction sales charts, we look at some of the other celebrities jockeying for position on the bestseller tables in the run-up to Christmas, and we trace the word "celebrity" all the way back to Byron, the original literary superstar.
We also launch a literary treasure trail, giving you the chance to win a signed copy of Simon Callow's My Life in Pieces. Just browse through the Guardian website, or use your favourite search engine to help you track down the answers to the following questions, and email your answers to review@guardian.co.uk, with "Callow booktrail" in the subject field by midnight on Friday 1 October 2010.
Treasure trail questions
1. Who, according to Diana Quick's review of Callow's My Life in Pieces due to be published in tomorrow's Saturday Review, once called acting "dressing up for Mummy and Daddy?"
2. In a review for the Guardian of Malcolm Andrews's study of Dickens's life on the stage – which also appears in My Life in Pieces – Callow quotes an intriguing suggestion that the great writer would have also made a great actor, if it wasn't for "them books". But who first made the remark to Dickens?
3. Callow rarely finds himself in any one place for long enough to get any writing done, so has become a dab hand at finding time and space wherever he can. He chose a dressing room at the Haymarket as part of our Writers' rooms series, but what was the carving which he imported for sustenance alongside the CD player, flowers and facilities for making tea?
4. Who reviewed My Life in Pieces for the Observer in August?
5. How much is My Life in Pieces on sale for on the online Guardian Bookshop?
Terms and conditions for the Simon Callow treasure trail
Reading List
My Life in Pieces by Simon Callow
The Fry Chronicles by Stephen Fry
