Research

The Etiquette of Interviewing

Damian Corless, author of You'll Ruin Your Dinner, the ideal gift book for anyone with a sweet tooth, reveals his tips for the perfect interview, and just what can go wrong...

My first big name interview was with Howard Jones, who, the 1980s being the most dismal decade in the history of pop music, was a very big name at the time. The editorial staff at Hot Press clearly weren’t 100% confident that I was ready for it, so I was accompanied by a seasoned member of staff who sat at the back of the room passing judgment on my performance. Happily I passed with flying colours and embarked on an interviewing career that continues today. Over the course of 25 years I’ve learned through experience that interviewing is a minefield of dos and don’ts.

Do be prepared

If you haven’t boned up on your subject you might get lucky and get an interviewee that just prattles on regardless of any questions you might put. The trouble with this is that even if the interviewee doesn’t spot you’re faking it, chances are your editor (if he or she is any good) will spot that you haven’t done your homework. I can only recall turning up for one interview totally unprepared, but it wasn’t my fault...

One Saturday many years ago I got a phone call from one of my bosses. They’d set up an interview with a young woman who’d just released a movie soundtrack album, and then completely forgotten about it. Since I had a key to the office, they asked, would I hop on my bike and meet her there? And hurry, because she was already there.  So hopped on my bike and rode like the wind, and when I arrived I found a young woman called Enya huddled in the doorway sheltering from the rain.

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Mary Russell's Guide to Travel Writing.

If you’re a writer, there’s only one way to travel and that’s solo. Travel with a companion and you come complete with an invisible wall around you. Two people chatting in their own language or poring over a map together is exclusive and can deter local people from offering help and maybe even that magical invitation to coffee that opens the door through which every travel writer wants to go, taking you right into someone’s home and heart. And let’s be honest, we all like to see what someone’s loo is like. We peep round a door and great, the bed’s not made yet and it’s three in the afternoon. That tells us a lot. So what do you do? You jot your observations down quickly and unobtrusively in your handy little notebook.

“But don’t you get lonely being on your own?” is the question often asked and the answer is no. On the contrary, it’s a relief to sit down at the end of a busy day that’s been full of new and challenging experiences to finally mull over what’s happened.

It’s at this point that I pull out the very small notebook I always carry in which I jot down observations made throughout the day, often nothing more than a phrase: plastic bucket by the river reminds me of the woman washing her clothes by the Euphrates and the way the setting sun lit up her plastic bucket. Or maybe there was time only for one word: ashtray bringing back the image of the waiter morosely scraping a squashed grape from the floor, using the edge of an ashtray for the job.

Read more: Mary Russell's Guide to Travel Writing.

A Beginners Guide to the University Library

It is a completely new departure. You have spent the previous six years working towards getting here and most definitely a hellish last few months; but you made it. You are now in college! As an overload of information, of new faces, new places and new responsibilities come pouring at you, it really is a time to savour - your reward for enduring and beating the points system and earning your place in your chosen course.

One of the biggest changes you will find at third-level comes at assignment-time - the onus is on you and you alone to source the information and material you will need to complete course-work and yes, also, unfortunately, more exams. There is a place on campus however, that you may have bypassed for the first few weeks of your college life. You have heard of it but are maybe unsure of how to approach it, you know it is there but are just a little cautious of where to go once in there: The College Library.

Over the coming years of your undergraduate career, the Library will invariably be where you spend a major chunk of you time, frantically looking for inspiration for that essay due next week. If you think of the library as being that someone you ring when looking for a shoulder to cry on when in need, someone to turn to for a quiet space during exam-time or indeed to vent when that person in your class always seems to get that A with seemingly little effort, then you will both get along just fine.

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Writing History: The Ship of Seven Murders by Kathy Bunney

The Ship of Seven Murders is the true story of murder and madness on the high seas. The book not only re tells the true story of the grisly murders from survivors’ accounts and trial transcripts but also looks at Captain Stewart’s medical condition from the opinion of todays professionals and recreates the gripping court room drama that was to rivet the people of Cork, Ireland in 1828. Written by myself and Allanah Hopkin, it was a wonderful learning experience and has had a great reaction.

I never set out to write a book - it had entered into my contemplation at different times throughout my life, like most people, “Some day I’ll write a book”, but never did I believe that it would become a reality. I would like to share my journey of discovery of the Ship of Seven Murders with you in the hope that the things I have that I learnt along the way will help and encourage new writers/researchers not to give up, to follow though and believe that it can happen…it did for me.

Read more: Writing History: The Ship of Seven Murders by Kathy Bunney