[2] The two teams were captained by novelist Sebastian Faulks and journalist John Walsh, with Beth Chalmers reading literary extracts.

John Walsh and Sebastian Faulks were team captains from the programme's beginning.

They were each joined by another journalist or novelist; frequent guests in later years included John O'Farrell, Mark Billingham and Lynn Truss.

[3] Walton sets a topic that would be so out of style of the author in question that a pastiche would be humorous.

For example, when Robert Burns was the author of the week, contestants were asked to write a poem, in the style of Burns, celebrating something typically English; when Philip Roth was the author of the week, contestants were asked how he might have written a children's story.