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Gyles Brandreth has met an extraordinary array of remarkable people. This record of the most notable of those encounters - based on Brandreth's acclaimed interviews for the Sunday Telegraph - includes princes, politicians, prime ministers from Edward Heath to Tony Blair, and giants of the arts world - Yehudi Menuhin, John Gielgud, Noël Coward - and others, from Dame Edna Everage to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who have left a special mark on life at the turn of the twenty-first century.

Original, anecdotal, gossipy, revealing, often touching, frequently hilarious, always beautifully observed, Brief Encounters is a portrait gallery of some of the most striking figures of our time.

Praise:
'Searingly honest, wildly indiscreet, and incredibly funny' - Lynda Lee-Potter, Daily Mail

'A fine and sympathetic writer - a good witness' - Michael Harrington, Times Literary Supplement

'Not merely, like all the best after-dinner speakers, does he know how to spin a yarn; unlike most politicians, he has a touching access to the secrets of the human heart' - Anthony Holden, The Times