As safe deposit boxes believed to contain manuscripts and drawings by the late author Franz Kafka are due to be opened at a bank in Zurich, Stephen Smith considers if it is ever right for works to be published posthumously.

Kafka died in 1924 and, if his last wishes had been followed, novels such as The Trial and The Castle would never have seen the light of day.

The author had asked his friend and fellow writer, Max Brod, to burn his manuscripts after his death, but Brod refused.

Broadcast on Monday 19 July 2010.