Airhead: The Imperfect Art of Making News Paperback – 17 October 2019

It helps if you're a Newsnight viewer to get the most from this book. Much of the content tells the behind the scenes stories and reflections of some of Emily Maitlis's big interviews, and without seeing those, a lot of the book simply loses impact. She writes really well - clear, engaging, passionate, self-critical, and it makes you realise just how many big names she has met and interviewed in her career at the BBC. Something of a news junkie and, one suspects, a workaholic, Maitlis keeps her own story and that of her family firmly in the background, but she writes with painful honesty about the awfulness of being stalked and highlights the inadequacies of the law to protect people from such abuse.There are dud spots along the way - the chapter on appearing in an Alan Partridge sketch adds little to the book other than to show she's a big fan, but the humour feels forced compared to the overall tone of the book where she is reflective and highly critical of her own interviewing at times. Stories here reveal mistakes made in the bubble of metropolitan journalism that seemed like good ideas at the time: putting the candidates for the Conservative leadership debate on bar stools rather than chairs, making them all look like members of a boy band; the absurd interview with DrillMinister (like something from Not The Nine O'Clock News it was so awful), and the incoherent ramblings of the Dalai Lama that, in print, look slightly bonkers. Her defining interview with Prince Andrew, strangely, is underplayed for the significance it had in making his role in public life largely untenable, and makes for a slightly underwhelming finish to an otherwise excellent and revealing read about life in broadcast journalism. Recommended.

Very good read

This book is well worth buying. It's not a classic autobiography, but short chapters on interesting interviews that she's done - giving you an insight into some fascinating personalities, and also what presenting news live to air is really like. She writes so well that every page turns effortlessly into the next, and I stayed reading late into the night - several times. She's funny, highly intelligent, wise and - unusually for an autobiographical work - self-deprecating. I came away very entertained and liking her a lot.

Had already read Scoops by Sam Malister so this seemed a natural progression. Emily portrays the background to some of her most high profile interviews. A fascinating read.

what a great read.. different perspective on the biggest news stories of the decade.Not sure how I came to buy this book - but I highly recommend it.