'Dear Geoffrey Chaucer, Can I call you Geoff..?'

In a series of imaginary correspondences, novelist Ian Sansom writes letters to five of literary history's most celebrated figures and interrogates them about their art.

'Oh Agatha Christie, Please - do tell - what is the secret of your success?'

As his correspondence unfolds, queries are raised, jealousies revealed, concerns aired.

'Dear Virginia Woolf, Please accept my apologies. For a long time I thought you represented everything that's wrong with literature...'

How exactly does George Eliot do it? Why is it so difficult? And what's that Jonathan Swift just called him?

Producer: Conor Garrett.