The Duchess hated books ("Quelle dread surprise, " she writes upon learning that a famous French writer is coming to dinner), while Fermor was the very definition of the dashing, encyclopedic gypsy scholar.
Jeff Skoll, a billionaire thanks to his ground-floor shares of eBay, writes about how as a middle class kid in Canada he grew up wanting to be awriter who told stories that make a difference in the world.