Private thoughts, public shame

Poor writers! While humiliation might be an emotion we're all too familiar with, it seems there is a particular kind of embarrassment reserved for a profession in which you are routinely obliged to make your most private thoughts public.

This collection of anecdotes and memories is as well-written and witty as you'd expect from the likes of Margaret Atwood, Roddy Doyle and Louis de Berniëres, but the elevated status of the contributors doesn't disguise the fact that, in essence, this is the literary equivalent of a readers' confessions page in Cosmo magazine.

While it's a perfect book to dip into - and will certainly be loved by other writers - in time the stories of booksignings where no one turns up, or readings at which the only person in the audience is the author's mother (who heckles), do become repetitive.

Indeed, the most cringe-worthy and funniest of the tales are often the ones that anyone could identify with - ones, in fact, which haven't much to do with writing.