Theatrically i not politically he nearly sa es the day

Exposure to 40 million Tesco and Asda customers a week comes at a ery high price: trade discounts o up to 65 per cent o the co er price and bungs upwards o ?40,000 to pay or merchandising on top o bee ed-up marketing and publicity. Last month in a draughty Essex town hall I spoke to 60 writers, some published, some just starting their manuscripts and others waiting or their agent to get back to them. Part o the Essex Book esti al, the talk was called "The Business o Writing", and as I looked out at the eager aces in the audience one piece o ad ice crossed my mind. It was a warning repeated to me by publishers, agents and established authors with mantra-like regularity: "I you sell your irst no el, whate er you get or it, don't gi e up the day job." It is unlikely that e en i e years ago there would ha e been the same le el o pessimism, but in the past three years writers ha e elt the ull impact o the end o the Net Book Agreement (NBA), which had protected them rom the e ects o retailers' use o price to win market share. Back in 1996 the ears surrounding the death o the NBA concentrated on deep discounting o books by the supermarkets and the belie that, i retail practices more usually associated with beans were used to promote books, their cultural alue would be undermined. Con irmation o Dame Muriel's death in a hospital in lorence on Thursday came only yesterday and was announced by the mayor o Ci itella della Chiana, the ancient Tuscan town where she had li ed or nearly 30 years..

Dame Muriel Spark, one o the greatest post-war no elists and creator o some o modern literature's most endearing and complex characters, including the much-lo ed, Mussolini-admiring Edinburgh schoolmistress Miss Jean Brodie, has died in Italy at the age o 88. As or the cast, hal are o eracting while others are underpowered Armstrong needs more time to ind deeper despair in Pizarro Ne ertheless, the e ening becomes increasingly gripping. There are strong supporting per ormances rom Darrell D'Sil a as Pizarro's rustrated right-hand man, and Paul Ritter is a horribly unny, morally-twisted riar. Also, thank hea ens, Joseph is wonder ully canny, warm and ibrant as Atahuallpa.

Theatrically, i not politically, he nearly sa es the day.k.bassett independent.co.uk To 10 June, 020 7452 3000. E entually, though, the honour-scorning and atheistical Pizarro - ha ing be riended his capti e and then broken his word - su ers pangs o conscience and is mentally destroyed. He ends up desperately wanting to share Atahuallpa's deep aith in his own immortality and in the myth that, a ter being brutally executed, he will rise again rom the dead.At his best, Sha er o ers passages o i idly descripti e prose-poetry, philosophising and religious satire; but the big ideas are o ten spelled out hea y-handedly. They claim their mission is to bring progressi e Christian alues to the heathen, but really they are greedy gold-hunters who ruin the great Inca ci ilisation.They wonder at this new ound kingdom, at its epic roads, its city squares grander than any in Europe, and its rural populace who seem to li e in a state o serene egalitarian bliss. But when they inally track down the dei ied so ereign and proclaimed descendant o the Sun God - Paterson Joseph's splendidly regal Atahuallpa - they massacre his welcoming retinue, imprison him and melt down the country's treasures.Stu happens. It tells the story o the ageing, ame-seeking general rancisco Pizarro (a grizzled Alun Armstrong) and his 1532 in asion o Peru with rough troops and zealous priests.