While one gets the sense that many Westminster journalists have few intellectual or cultural interests beyond the intrigues of parliament, Maitlis can boast the hinterland of a small country. The polyglot had landed in Hong Kong with a job tutoring Spanish, French and Italian, which left her plenty of free time to learn Mandarin, perform with a semi-professional theatre company and go on Buddhist meditation retreats. After leaving the BBC and signing with Global, Emily launched The News Agents, which went to the top of the podcast charts and won Gold at the British Podcast Awards. It provides a deep dive into the news of the day with expert opinion. Following its success Emily also hosts, with Jon Sopel, The News Agents USA. Award-winning broadcast journalist and BBC Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis opened up during Kingston University's Big Read author talk.

Airhead: The Imperfect Art of Making News by Emily Maitlis

Colleague Carrie Gracie would go on to resign as China editor, accusing the corporation of a “secretive and illegal” pay culture. It’s no wonder Airhead was The Times’ Book of the Year. I thoroughly recommend this book whether or not you have a penchant for the world of journalism, for the tales alone make for a fascinating read. With the plethora of famous figures, from the Dalai Lama to David Attenborough, and Bill Clinton to Russell Brand, there’s someone for everyone and a story for all. You cannot fault her easy, though-provoking writing, and her style makes for such compelling reading, it may even spark a chord of inspiration for you too. Emily Maitlis' new drama on Prince Andrew interview to rival old BBC ally's screen adaptation". The Daily Telegraph. 6 August 2022 . Retrieved 6 August 2022. Tobitt, Charlotte (24 September 2019). "BBC upholds complaint against Emily Maitlis over 'sneering' Newsnight discussion with Rod Liddle". Press Gazette.

Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall – three of the UK’s top journalists – host a daily news podcast: The News Agents. She was cool, efficient and enthusiastic,” he tells Post Magazine. “Judged by any number of fixers I’ve had in my 40-odd years working on the road, she was a breed apart. She is extremely bright, personable and very well-informed and, to be honest, I was surprised that someone as good as her was available and that she didn’t have a job at one of the big banks.” The first female lead presenter of BBC current affairs show Newsnight has come a long way from her days as ‘a terrible journalist’ The News Agents with Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel & Lewis Goodall: episodes, how to listen & more". LBC . Retrieved 17 January 2023. But without the data, how did she know she was losing out? She hesitates, working out how she can answer with­out giving too much away. “I knew that, erm, for example, Jeremy Vine and I were literally doing the same job [during election coverage]. I was standing in front of a touch screen, he was in front of a [virtual-reality screen] and we were doing the same job with the same preparation. And there was a massive disparity in salaries.”

Emily Maitlis - Wikipedia Emily Maitlis - Wikipedia

It is her dry humour that also gets conveyed and I get no sense of a woman who feels she is the leading star or the main player. What translates is her sense of teamwork, a shared vision and focus coupled with the support and encouragement she receives and reciprocates to her Newsnight buddies. Emily Maitlis’s book isn’t an autobiography. By the end we are none the wiser about what she was like as a child, her personal relationships or the pivotal moments that led to her becoming arguably the BBC’s sharpest interviewer and lead presenter of Newsnight. While she does devote a chapter to her experience of being stalked, Airhead is mostly a compendium of her biggest interviews with politicians, celebrities, thinkers and, in one case, an actual living god. In showing us what happens in front of the camera as well as the chaos behind it, her aim is less to tell her life story than reveal the blood, sweat and tears that go into planning and delivering the news. “Unlike print there is no room for annotation or commentary as you go along,” she writes in the introduction. “What appears on the screen is what people see. Everything else is just interpretation.” The book, as a series of short, fast, mostly disconnected chapters reflects the subject of the book; as Maitlis details how fast-paced and often chaotic the whole process is, as when she was given ten-minutes notice before interviewing then Prime Minister Theresa May in the wake of the Grenfell tragedy. Her book’s title is a subversive nod to the misogynistic stereotype of the female broadcaster – one Maitlis knows all too well. When she joined Newsnight as one of its main presenters, in 2006, parts of the press were convinced she had been promoted because she was an “autocutie”. Columnist Amanda Platell complained, “I don’t want to see a pretty dummy sitting there.” Rufus Sewell is to star in the eagerly awaited drama fictionalising Prince Andrew’s infamous interview on the BBC’s flagship current affairs show, Newsnight.

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The prince expressed regret in the interview about his continued association with Epstein after the financier’s 2008 admission of soliciting underage sex. But he said he did not regret the friendship itself as it led to connections which were “actually very useful”.

Emily Maitlis’s cultural highlights | Emily On my radar: Emily Maitlis’s cultural highlights | Emily

She recounts the interviews of her career, from the great, the good and the questionable, offering insights into the questions that illuminated their characters and the ones they dodged. A chapter on being the target of a stalker reveals her more vulnerable side in this compelling book * Observer * Ebner, Sarah (19 April 2017). "Emily Maitlis: Getting it right". The Jewish Chronicle . Retrieved 21 November 2019. The Telegraph values your comments but kindly requests all posts are on topic, constructive and respectful. Please review our Waterson, Jim (22 March 2019). "Emily Maitlis: 'Her winning quality is she doesn't take herself too seriously' ". The Guardian . Retrieved 21 November 2019.During 2005, Maitlis appeared as the question-master on the game show The National Lottery: Come And Have A Go. She was a regular presenter on BBC News Channel for a decade between 2006 and 2016, alongside Ben Brown and Jon Sopel. She also presented BBC Breakfast and from May 2006 until July 2007 presented STORYFix on BBC News, a light-hearted look at the week's news set to up-beat music. Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis is one of the savviest journalists working today, so her part-memoir, part-political commentary is titled with tongue-in-cheek irony. She recounts the interviews of her career, from the great (the Dalai Lama, Bill Clinton), the good (David Attenborough) and the more questionable (Donald Trump, Steve Bannon), offering first-hand insights into the questions that illuminated their characters and the ones they, or she, dodged. A chapter on being the target of a stalker reveals her more vulnerable side in this compelling book. Engaging, concise stories, covering encounters with the Dali Lama, Syrian migrants to Simon Cowell - ‘he’s shorter in real life’ ... (We’ve all seen those dodgy heeled shoes he wears Emily) The experience has influenced her own reporting. She tells me that for several years, without fanfare, she has been covering mass shootings and terrorist atrocities without naming the perpetrators, instead focusing on the victims. But given the evident trauma the ordeal continues to inflict on Maitlis, it is a subject I am surprised to find receives a chapter in her book. Was this because she felt an obligation to shed light on the issue for other victims?

Airhead - Penguin Books UK

Waiting in 43C heat for Bill Clinton, she changes her clothes in a barn and frets about her 'pothole-jolted make-up' Maitlis and the now infamous eye-roll, during an interview with British MPs Nadhim Zahawi (centre) and Barry Gardiner, in March.Maitlis, who was born in Canada and grew up in a Jewish family in Sheffield, in the north of England, exhibits the analytical mind of her psychotherapist mother, Marion, and the forensic skills of her father, Peter, a retired professor of chemistry who escaped the Nazis as a child. She comprehends the agenda of the politician or celebrity and why it isn’t always possible to elicit the answers she desires. But she still beats herself up if she feels she has been overtaxing or too soft in her questioning.