All the essays deserve high praise. Seldom does one encounter such a wealth of good prose within the covers of a single volume. The book is itself inspirational, teaching much about writing and teaching, thinking and living.

Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, The Irish Times

The best are excellent, memorializing through striking detail teachers – some exceptionally charismatic – who understood their pupils as well as they did the importance of all they were passing on to them.

Catharine Morris, Times Literary Supplement

I found myself pleasurably immersed in the recollections of a network of individuals for whom writing became not only the centre of their universe but a necessary condition for living. ... [A] delightfully entertaining collection.

Bennett Arnold Society Newsletter

Celebrates how some of the leading writers of our time have been shaped by inspirational teachers.

Choice

Dale Salwak has created a collection that should be required reading for all prospective teachers. Elegant praise for their teachers comes from Jay Parini, Margaret Drabble, Dana Gioia, and many others.

Linda Wagner-Martin, Hanes Professor, University of North Carolina, USA

There is no model, no formula. Chance encounters, dusty school teachers, maverick professors, illiterate grandfathers. Twenty authors ruminate on the relationships that lit the first steps of their careers. Nothing could be more fascinating.

Tim Parks, author of 'Where I'm Reading From, the Changing World of Books'