A spin-off from a TV series, Eyre's interview collection offers a remarkable panorama of the 20th-century theatre, with the array of playwrights quizzed (Ayckbourn, Bennett, Hampton, Hare, Miller, Pinter, Stoppard and Wilson among them) matched by equally starry line-ups of actors and directors. While mid-century Broadway, Brecht, Beckett and the Royal Court revolution recur as themes, the subject-matter is diverse; one moment John Gielgud is reminiscing about Sarah Bernhardt, the next Peter Brook might be discussing his 60s experiments, Stephen Sondheim recounting West Side Story's birth, or Liam Neeson recalling his early career. What makes the book a rich read is that Eyre's interviewees tend to be brilliant talkers; as when Tony Kushner denounces The Lion King ("a beautifully packaged parable for neo-con audiences and their creepy little children"), or Judi Dench defines her craft: "You don't play what's on the page. What you play is like that cake called mille-feuille . . . It's as if the line is that layer of icing on the top. The bit you're playing is the 59th bit of pastry."