Brief Encounters

From Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard - stars of the original Brief Encounter - to the Queen and Posh Spice, Gyles Brandreth has met an extraordinary array of remarkable people. This book is a record of the most notable of those encounters as chronicled in his acclaimed interviews in the "Daily Telegraph" and "Sunday Telegraph", prefaced by an exploration of the art and craft of the interview by one of its most celebrated practitioners. Original, anecdotal, gossipy, idiosyncratic, revealing, touching and hilarious but always well observed, the book is a portrait gallery of some of the most striking figures of our time. Gyles Brandreth is one of the most colourful figures in British public life - and not only on account of his legendary jumpers. A former Conservative MP whose book of diaries, "Breaking the Code", was a huge bestseller, he is also famed as a broadcaster and novelist and for his appearances on celebrity game shows.