Orange prize shortlisted author, Jill Dawson, is September's Books That Built Me guest. We will talk about her latest novel, The Crimewriter, a pitch-perfect portrait of Patricia Highsmith as well as a gripping story of clandestine love, madness and murder (yes, the infamous snails have a glide on part too), and about six books which have inspired Dawson's writing.

Jill Dawson has often drawn on real figures and events for her eight novels, which include Fred and Edie about the murderess Edith Thompson, shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel Award and the Orange Prize, The Great Lover about Rupert Brooke, which was a Richard & Judy Summer Read, and Wild Boy about the first recorded case of autism in 18th-century France. With The Crime Writer she has surpassed herself – it is at once an extraordinary act of ventriloquism, a nuanced and empathetic portrait of a tortured soul, and a gripping story of desire and murderous intent. I can't wait to discover how the books she loves meet the books she writes.