Speakers: Adam Andrusier, Francine Stock

Adam Andrusier spent his childhood in pursuit of autographs. After writing to every celebrity he could think of, from Frank Sinatra to Colonel Gaddafi, he soon jostled with the paparazzi at stage doors and came face-to-face with the most famous people on the planet. It opened up a world beyond his chaotic family home in Pinner and his Holocaust-obsessed father. But as Adam turned from collector to dealer, learning how to spot a fake from the real deal, he discovered that in life, as in autographs, not everything is as it first appears. When your obsession is a search for the authentic, what happens when you discover fraudulence in your own family? The inspiration for Zadie Smith’s Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Literary Prize-winning novel The Autograph Man joins us to discuss his memoir, described as “wise, funny, surprising, touching, and wonderful company” by Jonathan Safran Foer and “the zaniest book I’ve read in eons” by Gary Shteyngart. In conversation with broadcaster Francine Stock.