Praise for The Best of Writers and Company
"Wachtel's on-air mannergently prodding, thoughtful and encouraginghas helped her to elicit profound responses from even her most reticent interview subjects. The breadth of her research is evident in her questions, and the interviews offer readers deep insights into the authors' backgrounds, inspirations, fears, and dreamsplus, of course, the books they write ... [T]his collection in print offers readers something to hold on to ... [A] useful reference to keep alongside favorite books."Publishers Weekly
If I need to convince you about a book of interviews selected by Eleanor Wachtel as her best from the first 25 years of Writers & Company, I really don’t know what to say to you. Do you even like books? ... Wachtel brings such dedication, integrity, curiosity and elasticity of mind to her work it doesn’t really matter whether these 15 authors are your personal favourites, because you don’t know what you want to know from them until they answer [her] questions.”The Globe & Mail
"Wachtel has been doing what she does so well, and for so long, that we could get lulled into taking her for granted. A fine corrective to that possibility has arrived in the form of The Best of Writers & Company, a new anthology gathering fifteen full-length interviews with an almost embarrassingly stellar list of writers. You’d be hard-pressed to find a book of comparable scope anywhere."Montreal Gazette
"Eleanor Wachtel has spent a quarter-century interviewing the world's greatest authors ... [The Best of Writers & Company] includes her best exchanges."Toronto Star
"[Eleanor Wachtel's style] is quiet, yet illuminating."Peter Robb, Ottawa Citizen