Page 21 - David Burr Rooftops Magazine Winter 2017/2018

Paul Simon
Journalist and PR consultant
Can I quote you on that?
What are the stars really like? What’s the inside story on celebrity interviews? We asked four regionally based magazine writers to tell us who were their favourite subjects, and who were the more awkward ones
For me, the secret to a good interview is to completely ignore any attempt at serious objectivity. In fact, I try to embed my own emotional
reaction to the subject in front of me as part of the article. Spontaneous subjectivity can make for a really good read.
Face-to-face interviews are obviously better for this purpose than phone ones and face-to-face interviews in the interviewee’s house are the best again as he or she is more likely to be relaxed and open. Oh, and I get to comment on their choice of furniture and paintings!
For that reason, some of my most memorable interviews have taken place in the living rooms of the great and the good: eating cake with the late Ruth
Rendell, Emma Freud and Diana Quick (not altogether) and drinking beer with author Julie Myerson spring to mind.
My most enjoyable encounter was with Maggi Hambling in her studio near Aldeburgh. Famously acerbic and no- nonsense she had and still has a ferocious reputation for being somewhat difficult to interview.
The night before I’d got drunk, woken late and so arrived at her place hungover, unshaven and in a full English foul mood myself. We snarled at each other and generally got on so well that the result was a lively and authentic article.
Phone interviews can sometimes be effective, though. I recall talking to Michael Portillo about his father’s last days and could hear the upwelling of emotion in his voice and hesitations.
Sometimes ‘phoners’ fall flat because the necessary empathy isn’t created at the start and thereafter maintained because of the lack of non-verbal signals.
A still very famous comedian, frequently on Radio 4, perhaps daunted by the early hour of the interview – which he himself had suggested – was just incredibly rude and totally unfunny. I nearly put the phone down on him, but got my revenge by showing my spontaneous subjectivity and opened the article with my surprise as to how different he was to the character we’d come to know and love!
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