Emma Lee-Potter

This is an exciting week for me because my first non-fiction book, Interviewing for Journalists, is out. It’s aimed at journalism students and trainees but journalists of all ages and anyone who has to conduct interviews will be interested in it. My husband runs a technology business and he’s picked up loads of tips from the book about how to interview customers, suppliers and prospective employees. He now refers to ...keep reading

Interviewing for Journalists focuses on the central journalistic skill of how to ask the right questions in the right way. It is a practical and concise guide for all print and online journalists – professionals, students and trainees – who write news stories and features for newspapers, magazines and online publications. In the age of digital journalism, where computer-based research is easily available, this new edition seeks to emphasise the value ...keep reading

What a brilliant way to start the festive season. Lunch at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese in Fleet Street with some of my best pals from the old Evening Standard days, followed by a drink or two at one of our favourite haunts, the Punch Tavern. As the drinks flowed, the years rolled away and the stories got wilder. We reminisced about the days when mobile phones were the size of bricks, ...keep reading

The last time I worked in an office Prince Charles was still married to Princess Diana (just), mobile phones were the size of bricks and cappuccinos were unheard of outside Italy. In those days journalists started their careers in the provinces, honing their skills on local papers, learning 100wpm shorthand and bashing out stories on tinny typewriters. After a couple of years loads of us hotfooted it to London, clutching our prized ...keep reading

Rooting through my old files I’ve just found a piece about journalism that I wrote as a young reporter. I can’t for the life of me remember who it was for but here, completely unedited and slightly dated, is an account of my route to Fleet Street. Don’t even contemplate going into journalism if you are highly-strung, sensitive to the slightest criticism or expect to be on the 6.03 train ...keep reading

My favourite story of the week was the news that old-fashioned typewriters have returned to The Times newspaper. The sound of fingers frantically bashing away at manual typewriters is like music to the ears of old hacks like me. The memory of it transports me straight back to Fleet Street in the 1980s. But this time round the typewriters will only be heard at The Times, not seen. The sound of clattering ...keep reading

The newspaper picture took me straight back to my royal reporting days. Rows and rows of metal stepladders have suddenly appeared outside the Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington – ready for the royal birth. There are still two weeks to go before Kate Middleton’s baby is due but Fleet Street’s finest aren’t taking any chances. The photographers have been camped outside the hospital night and day since ...keep reading

Moving On, my second novel, is published as an ebook today – and I’m over the moon. It’s the novel I’m most proud of so I’m hoping that new readers will enjoy it. When the book was first published it had a lurid pink jacket with daisies scattered across the front but now publishers Piatkus Entice have given it a gorgeous mauve cover (I must say I rather covet the ...keep reading

What on earth has happened to me? I’ve trekked across the Masai Mara to discover who murdered a beautiful young woman in the prime of her life, stood on the doorsteps of drugs barons and murderers and covered court cases that gave me nightmares. Yet, here I am having sleepless nights over the slightest things. The bottom line is that I need to give myself a firm talking to – ...keep reading

Tyler Brûlé is a publishing phenomenon. A war reporter turned fashion editor, he launched the ultra-hip style magazine Wallpaper* in 1996 and the following year Times Inc bought it for a cool $1.7 million. He writes the Fast Lane column in the Financial Times and has also founded an upmarket monthly magazine called Monocle. His latest venture is based at chic headquarters in Marylebone, where everything is so stylish that ...keep reading