Books are brainchildren. Few writers will argue with that. Until such time when the body no longer agrees with this division of labour and starts making havoc. This happened to the British writer Tim Parks. Physical problems forced him to a self-analysis on the relationship between body and mind. He wrote a book about this all-embracing experience Teach Us to Sit Still. He will talk to Wim Brands and Gerbrand Bakker, writer of June, The Detour and the award-winning The Twin, who recently wrote on his weblog: "A good friend had sculpted a bronze statuette and gave it to me as a present. It is a statuette of a writer working in a somewhat awkward pose. "Yes", I said, "I'd love to have it". Because I thought it was beautiful, but also because metaphorically I thought it said something about the way I write, or who I am in general terms. A conversation about writing and physical discomfort. In English.

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