Miscellany
THE WORLD OF WRITING
Surprise tactics, balloon flights, economic deprivation growing old when your nose in a book? All part of life in the wide world of writing.
Try surprise for best interview results
There is a trick to conducting a viable interview, advised writer and broadcaster Tony Earnshaw in his Arts View column in the Yorkshire Post.
Tony, an expert on the film world, who was recently described as ‘one of the top journalists in the field’, and has questioned many an international star, said: ‘My approach is to embrace the four Ps: be punctual, be prepared, be professional and be polite. I treat celebrities like strangers. In other words whilst I may know them, in all likelihood they don’t know me from a hole in the wall. So I introduce myself, thus giving them the chance to do the same. Some do, some don’t. And, of course, they don’t have to.’
He continued: ‘Many work on the basis that you know who they are; that’s why you’re there. But it’s a courtesy. The real skill in interviewing famous folk is to take them by surprise. That generally leads to more interesting content. It can be disastrous, too. But that goes with the territory.’