The Writer's Life: As you know: Read from the Masters, old and new. For a stunning example of character description read here;

From a 1956 profile of Tennessee Williams by the late Kenneth Tynan, one of the legendary theater critics. “In Spain, where I saw him last, he lookedprofoundly Spanish. He might have passed for one of those confidential streetdealers who earn their living selling spurious Parker pens in the cafes of Malagaor Valencia. Like them, he wore a faded chalk-striped shirt, a coat slung over hisshoulders, a trim dark mustache and a sleazy, fat-cat smile. His walk, like theirs,was a raffish saunter, and everything about him seemed slept in, especially hishair, a nest of small, wet serpents.”

This, and many other such real-life characterizations, can be found in theTynan anthology, Profiles, one of the finest master-classes in how to write non-fiction. As it’s one of my favorite books, expect to see excerpts from it here fromtime to time.