Listen every day at 11:15am and 7:15pm

'How Literature Works' does exactly what it says on the tin. It's a 100-episode guide for the recreational reader - people in reading groups would be a good example - who love reading but may not have studied it in any formal sense. It doesn't tell them what to read, but rather how to get the most out of their reading - and hopefully, by the end will have given anyone listening the confidence to venture outside their comfort zone, take on "Ulysses" and win.

In the coming weeks, the series will feature a potted history of literature from 4000 BC to the present, a brief overview of lit crit, the history of books and publishing, what goes on inside a writer's mind, the genesis and development of storytelling and how readers extract meaning from within a text.

Presenter Paul Kent is also inviting listeners to engage in a dialogue with the series telling him of their own experiences of reading and understanding books, and the most interesting stories will be woven into the series.

The full script will be available here on the Oneword website every week.

To contact Paul, click here.