The art of the interview

Interviews for a new book fall into several categories. The best ones obviously, are conducted by those people who have actually read the book, and that is the subject they want to discuss. This can be tricky, because with fiction, print interviews, radio and tv are looking for an angle in order to make the interview more interesting. Fair enough, can't complain about that. Paths of Glory has a definite theme, as it's a fictionalised story of George Mallory, the man who, in 1924, attempted to climb Everest. He was last seen, 620 feet from the summit, disappearing up into the clouds - did he make it? So if you've read the book, there's no shortage of questions you can ask, but if you're lazy, you've still got the flap copy on the inside cover to refer to, which is an expanded version of what I've written above.

On Sunday night I was interviewed by Alan Jones of Radio 2GB, the leading interviewer in Australia, and very much in the John Humphrys mould. He interviewed me for an uninterrupted 15 minutes, and was fascinated by the fact that the other great climber at that time was a man called George Finch - who the Royal Geographical Society refused to allow to be a member of the 1924 expedition, on the grounds that he was an Australian. They only wanted men from Oxford or Cambridge. So it's even possible that the first man to reach the summit of Everest would have been an Australian. For the past 85 years, it has been debated if Finch had been on that trip, would he and Mallory not only have made it to the top, but safely back down. During Alan Jones's demanding questions about George Mallory and George Finch, he pointed out that Finch was a Fellow of the Royal Society, so how could the RGS have ever thought about disqualifying such an able man? Mr Jones went on to interview a government minister straight after me, on the problems of compensation, and he seemed equally well-briefed and well-informed, and he does this 5 days a week. The ultimate professional.

Last night (early morning today, Australian time) I was interviewed by the other type of broadcaster. Not only had he not read the book, but he hadn't even bothered to read the flap copy, which would have taken him all of 30 seconds. So he opened the interview looking at the back page and saying, "I see this book has had wonderful reviews." Actually, it hasn't been reviewed - they were past reviews for previous books. The irony is that the person being interviewed in this situation can turn it into a straight advertisement, as inevitably the next question is, "So what's the book about, Jeffrey?" The trick is to reply in such a way that the listener wants to go out and buy it, while also giving the lazy interviewer the opportunity to pick up on some fact you've fed them.

At the end of the day, I'd still rather be interviewed by someone who's read the book, has an opinion, and has some demanding questions to ask. I do my first big Australian television show tonight, (breakfast time tomorrow morning in Australia) on Mornings with Kerri-Anne for Channel 9, and am looking forward to it, as Kerri-Anne always reads the book, and firmly falls into category one - a true professional. I'll report back tomorrow.