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The provocative British writer talks to Eleanor Wachtel about his new book, Inside Story, which reflects on the significant men in his life, including his father Kingsley, his mentor Saul Bellow, and his closest friend, writer and critic Christopher Hitchens.

This week on Writers and Company, host Eleanor Wachtel talks with two of England's most celebrated biographers, Victoria Glendinning and Michael Holroyd. Glendinning's lives of Jonathan Swift and Anthony Trollope and Holroyd's definitive works on George Bernard Shaw and Augustus John have established them as two of the most influential biographers of our time. They talk with Eleanor Wachtel about the pleasures and pitfalls of writing biography.

Eleanor Wachtel speaks with one of England's finest writers, Ian McEwan. They talk about his post-9/11 novel, Saturday, and his latest dysfunctional romance, On Chesil Beach.

Eleanor Wachtel in conversation with the dynamic, young author Zadie Smith. The author of the bestselling hits White Teeth and On Beauty, has a new book of essays about writing, about her addiction to reading, and about her family. Changing My Mind is published by Hamish Hamilton Canada.

Prize-winning author Yiyun Li talked to Eleanor Wachtel on stage in Toronto about her new novel, Where Reasons End, written in the months following the suicide of her 16-year-old son.

Politics in Literature' Panel: This week on Writers & Company, four writers joined Eleanor Wachtel at the Toronto International Festival of Authors for a discussion on 'Politics in Literature.' Victoria Glendinning, Hari Kunzru, Colm Tóibín, and Ronald Wright engage with the political, the personal, and the profound. Love's Civil War: Elizabeth Bowen And Charles Ritchie by Victoria Glendinning is published by McClelland & Stewart. My Revolutions by Hari Kunzru is published by Penguin…

It's all about books that changed a life this week on Writers & Company. Host Eleanor Wachtel chairs a panel at the International Festival of Authors, at which England's David Baddiel, Nigeria's Helen Oyeyemi and American author Francine Prose talk about books that have had a pivotal impact on their careers and their lives.

Part I: Kentucky author Bobbie Ann Mason discusses and reads from her new novel about turn-of-the-century quintuplets, called Feather Crowns. Part II: Biographer Andrew Motion talks about the life of the controversial English poet Philip Larkin.

Today on Writers & Company, two remarkable writers discuss literary biography - English novelist Margaret Drabble, and the award-winning American biographer of Simone de Beauvoir, Deirdre bair. Eleanor also talks with South African expatriate poet Dennis Brutus.

A rare interview with Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet John Ashbery. Ashbery - often touted as the next Nobel Laureate from the United States - discusses poets and poetry and reads from his work.

Part I: American feminist activist Kate Millett looks at torture in her new book, The Politics of Cruelty. It's an essay on the literature of political imprisonment. Part II: British writer Ian Hamilton on the perils of literary biography and his new book, Keepers of the Flame.

British writer and wit, Alan Bennett. One of the original members of Beyond the Fringe, Bennett is now known for his play and film The Madness of King George, and for his utterly engaging book, Writing Home.