It’s not a new question, or one that is going to end any time soon, and will probably never be answered; does the reputation or life of an author have a part to play in the success, or failure of their work?

Many of you read the lives and times of your favourite actors, musicians and even authors but many could not say why they like them in regards to the work they do.

Take for example, Heath Ledger: an unfortunate death, but one that will be riddled with suspicion, and no doubt that as a result his bulk sales will be driven up.

But in time, his reputation, and his death will be the remaining evidence of his life’s work. Can this also be argued for authors, poets and playwrights? Can an author’s work remain autonomous from their surroundings, or what they got up to?

There are many cases that come to mind with this one, reputation versus reception; Edgar Allen Poe was an avid drinker, as was Dylan Thomas. Virginia Woolf was apparently quite obnoxious, while Oscar Wilde was a very naughty boy, and Sylvia Plath was a bitch, apparently.

The ongoing Plath-Hughes argument - whether or not their works would have survived had they had not had a tumultuous relationship - still prevails in the literary world. There is no doubt that both poets were something to remember, but would they have been pushed to extinction if they had never met each other?

I am not suggesting that their relationship was grounded on some sort of intent for fame, but should we perhaps perversely thank the disaster that was their relationship for the fact that we can still read them, and that some of the couple’s best work came from their experiences of one another?

From her greatest literary critics to the teenager that first comes across her within the depth of their own self-discovery, many still remain obsessed with Plaths’ suicide, alongside many of the other confessional poets of the ‘60s such as Anne Sexton.

Plath, without doubt, led a life with a certain legacy, from autobiographical poems such as ‘Lady Lazarus’ which deals with the notions of suicide and rebirth that echo harshly in her own experience; to the semi-biographical ‘The Bell Jar’, her own experiences hauntingly portrayed through the eyes of Esther Greenwood.

The literary term “an unreliable narrator” could have been coined with short, odd, homosexual Truman Capote in mind, as he seemed to be an unreliable narrator of his own life, feigning relationships with allegedly heterosexual men and certain celebrities of his time.

You cannot deny Capote’s talent but the fact remains that many times it is often overlooked because of his celebrity status in the literary world.

If I were to commit a savage murder and then write the critically-acclaimed masterpiece of the century, would it have only become so because I had a less-than-ordinary reputation?

Or if I was the most boring bastard in the world and wrote the same thing, would it had been received the same even though there was no controversy linked to it?

What you’re likely to find is that, amidst our growing ‘celebrity culture’, it will be very hard to be completely detached from your environment once you’ve released your 400 page baby into the world.

They’ll want to know how much you smoke, drink, what you eat, do, watch, and who you’re currently dating and whether they approve of them or not. It’s almost like that over-reactive parent that just won’t let you stand on your own two feet.

It is fortunate sometimes to think that Katie Prices’ books would never have hit the shelves had “Jordan” not existed, but the mere fact that she does and has published these horrendous works makes me want to send something nasty through the post to her publisher for their crimes to literature.

Here’s a quick, non-dead one; ever heard of £3,000-a-lecture ‘Blitcon’ Martin Amis? It’s likely you can’t think of any of his works off the top of your head, as his political views concerning his opinions of the Muslim community and the 9/11 attack on the US seem to be the one and only thing that seems to hit the headlines for nowadays.

They do say you pay those few (or hundreds in this case) pennies more for unadulterated controversy.

So, should your personal life be one of the measures used to gauge how good your work is? Will your life be stretched before your critics before your pages are?

There is no doubt that there are implications that come with being a murderer, homosexual, black, or a woman, and it would be interesting to give the work to someone who knows who the author is, and someone who has no clue.