The art of ghostwriting

As the film adaptation of Robert Harris's novel The Ghost opens in the UK, in The Independent Jonathan Campbell reveals the secrets of ghostwriting.

Ghostwriters in fiction are ...harder to pin down – but they're there. Shakespeare, of course, is accused of putting his name to the plays of others, while Alexandre Dumas hired dozens of writers to construct The Three Musketeers. Fans of Virginia Andrews continue to buy the Flowers In The Attic author's new books long after her death, thanks to ghost Andrew Neiderman, while the fictional characters Nancy Drew, Jason Bourne and even the Famous Five have also outlasted their originators. But do the publishers want you to know this? No.