Introduced by Robert Robinson

Best buys: John Arlott, author and journalist, and Rosie Swale, author of Children of Cape Horn, each choose a recent hardback and paperback.

Malcolm Lowry 1909-57: Lowry's Under the Volcano is a modern classic. It is set in pre-war Mexico and describes the last day in the life of a drunken English consul. The book took Lowry ten years to write, was first rejected by his publisher and finally received by a chorus of acclaim. A biography of Lowry by Douglas Day is out next week. Iain Johnstone has been in Mexico retracing Lowry's steps.

Geoffrey Moorhouse talks about his book, The Fearful Void, an account of his 2,000-mile journey alone across the Sahara, a journey he barely survived.