Shakespeare and Company, Paris, is one of the world’s most iconic and beautiful bookshops. Located on the banks of the Seine, opposite Notre-Dame, it’s long been a meeting place for anglophone writers and readers.

In that tradition, determined for the bookshop to remain a place of meaningful and transformative conversation, owner Sylvia Whitman and novelist and literary director Adam Biles have hosted several hundred interviews with writers, ranging from prize-winning novelists to visionary non-fiction writers.

The Shakespeare and Company Book of Interviews is a selection of the best of these interviews from the last decade. Packed with warmth, sensitivity and humour, it’s a celebration of the greatest writers of our age and an insight into the lives and thoughts behind some of today’s most talked-about books.

The Shakespeare and Company Book of Interviews is a fascinating and beautiful book filled with twenty interviews from various writers which have been selected from hundreds that owner Sylvia Whitman and literary director Adam Biles have conducted over many years.

Each interview brings something different. Some are poignant, some focus on tough subjects, and others bring humour. Each interview is completely different and inspiring. They are immersive reads and it is wonderful to see the thought processes and the imagination these authors have that contributed to their amazing books and why the stories were for them to write.

If you don’t know Shakespeare and Company, which rock have you been hiding under? It is one of the most famous bookshops in the world located in Paris. People travel across the world just to visit it so you can imagine what an honour it must be for these authors to be interviewed there.

Overall, The Shakespeare and Company Book of Interviews is a book you can dip in and out of. The interviews don’t have to be read in order so you have free reign to pick and choose how to read them. There will be authors you know and some you may never have heard of before. It is a truly magnificent read. If you love books then you really need to read this as it captures the heart of the literary world within its pages. The idea of having a book filled with interviews sounds a little dull but believe me this book is anything but.