Lunch with the ft (Penguin Books)

From film stars to politicians, tycoons to writers, dissidents to lifestyle gurus, Lunch with the FT is a selection of classic interviews conducted in the unforgiving proximity of a restaurant table. The list of people who have had Lunch with the FT since 1994 reads like an international Who's Who of our times.

Meet the rich and famous, the weird and the brilliant, the brave and the virtuous, brought to you by the Financial Times' global network of columnists and correspondents. The operative word is lunch: this book brings you right to the table to decide what you think of Angela Merkel or Martin Amis, George Soros or Sean "P.

Diddy" Combs, Angelina Jolie or Jimmy Carter. Meet not just oligarchs and royals, but the tycoon who will pay African presidents to quit, and one of the Arab world's most notorious sons. Also included are James Ferguson's famous illustrations in black and white.

Lionel Barber, editor of the Financial Times, has steered the newspaper to three Newspaper of the Year awards. He has co-written several books, lectured widely, and appears regularly on international TV and radio.

Barber graduated in 1978 from St Edmund Hall, Oxford University.In 2009 he was awarded the St George Society medal of honour. A long time FT foreign correspondent in Washington, Brussels and New York, he is also a member of the Board of Trustees at the Tate.