DAVID LEWIS STEVE CRAWSHAW Diploma Author

By Eoghan O’Donnell

What was your funniest experience on a job?

Surreal things happened as a journalist in the Soviet Union. I was in the Baltic States as they were collapsing in early 1991. Russian tanks were on the street, and communication was extremely diffcult. In Latvia, I fnally got through to the copy-taker (taking dictated copy at the other end of the phone), which was very diffcult to manage. But the service broke down repeatedly, and I ended up unable to hear anything on the other end of the line. I dictated the story without knowing if I was being heard. I ended the call saying: “You may be there, or you may not be there, but goodbye,” but he was. The piece ended up as the front page lead!

Did you have a student job while you were at City? If so, what was it?

I did four-week internships; some of them then turned to subbing shifts, which I did afterwards. I got something with the Financial Times, working with the Eastern Europe editor at the time, and then at the BBC East European service.

By Megan Geall

Who was the most inspiring person you met at City?

Ben Bradlee, editor of The Washington Post during the Watergate investigations, came to speak to us. This was at a time when Ben Woodward and Carl Bernstein and the flm All the President’s Men had inspired many of us to be journalists. He was a huge name, and it was lovely of him to spend time with us.

What has been the highlight of your career?

More than anything I’ve loved writing books, so I think the highlight was discussing one of my books on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour. This show is the Holy Grail for authors and for a few precious hours, my sales soared above one of Jamie Oliver’s and Dawn French’s new releases in the Amazon charts.

Have you ever experienced sexism in your career?

I had a grim time on a northern daily in the 1980s, but that might not have been sexism – maybe I just wasn’t at my best. The worst was in my twenties. One time, in a bar, a crowd of older male hacks were throwing sexual questions at me, solely to humiliate and embarrass a younger woman. Those were the days you’d be labelled a lesbian (term of abuse) if you wouldn’t sleep with someone. Benjamin Zephaniah says in one of my books: ‘The past is a different kind of country.’ I hope he’s right.