'Airhead' offers a fascinating look behind the scenes into television journalism. Emily Maitlis invites us behind the camera, behind the polished facade to see how some of her most noteworthy interviews came about. Maitlis comes across as a consummate professional and very impressive. I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent reading her recollections and insights into all manner of subjects.

Airhead by Emily Maitlis is a fascinating book about working on TV and in particular BBC Newsnight.. She discusses her more serious interviews in America and other countries and interviews that went well and others that didn’t work out as expected. She is has an insight into life in the media and how you present yourself to the world. Her observations on famous people and politicians are cleverly observed and can be humorous.
I enjoyed reading this book and found it informative and entertaining, the author came across as someone who is human and makes mistakes, in her case in the glaring media eye.
I highly recommend Emily Maitlis’s book ‘Airhead’

Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read this book.
A very good read. The life of a TV journalist focusing on individual interviews. I recommend it.

I have been watching Emily Maitlis take interviews of famous people on her show Newsnight. This book contains a small segment about her personal life before becoming an anchor to extracts from her previous interviews that she has done throughout her career some of these chapters feature the Dalai Lama, Piers Morgan, Emma Thompson, David Attenborough, Anthony Scaramucci and Donald Trump. Worth reading.

More of an exploration of the news business than a personal memoir, this is a great read, as we follow Maitlis through many of her major interviews, including one with the former President of the United States...

Emily Maitlis is one of my journalism heroes. How could she not be? She asks the best questions and looks absolutely unruffled as she does it; she gets to travel to amazing locations and she has a penchant for dramatic Newsnight openings that me and my friends always talk about the next day.

So really, I should actually feel ashamed that I haven’t gotten around to reading this sooner. Fortunately, it lived up to every expectation I had- and then some. And I can tell you this for free: she is definitely not an airhead.

The book isn’t really your bog-standard biography. We don’t get much- if anything- about Maitlis’s childhood, time at university or what she wanted to do when she was an infant. What we do get is a collection of vignettes from her time as a reporter and presenter- and trust me, she has plenty of them. Want to know what it’s like to interview Bill Clinton on a farm in the middle of nowhere in India? Maitlis is your woman. What about trying to get a story filed from the depths of the Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong? According to Maitlis, the whole ordeal was stressful beyond belief. Trump, Piers Morgan, the Dalai Lama… the list goes on and on, and we get to see what it was like to film these stories. Once the cameras are on, most interviews go smoothly. The real stress test is getting them on camera in the first place.

These snippets of life are tantalising, but they are just that: snapshots. Maitlis tells these stories well- after all, she is a journalist and has an eye for a good turn of phrase- but there’s not a whole lot of personal detail here. The most personal she gets is discussing her infamous stalker, which had me gawping and furious in equal measure. It’s beyond belief that Maitlis has had to suffer this man for more than twenty years, and sheds a bit of light on her desire to keep her book strictly to stories from her time on air.

Regardless, this was an enjoyable read: witty, self-assured and a real window into what famous people can really be like on the other side of the interview table. Just nobody mention Prince Andrew.

This was a really fascinating read! Emily tells the stories behind some of her biggest interviews from Clinton to Trump. I loved how we get a peek behind the scenes of what we see on the tv and learn there’s more to why certain things were done or questions asked. I would totally recommend this! .

Emily Maitlis is a household name in the UK mainly due to BBC Newsnight. This is an insight into some of her most memorable interviews and what was behind them.
It is eye opening, I never realised how little preparation there often is and how much is out of control and spur of the moment. Whilst we the public have the ability to reflect and replay the interviews the press often have minutes to work out what's happening.
Although she tries to keep away from personal matters the glimpses I got were interesting. She is very self reflective in a difficult job for example looking back at her Bill Clinton interviews after Me Too and what she didn't ask. Her account of being the news after being stalked is moving and how she fell for some journalist interview tricks.

Well, clearly Emily Maitliss, presenter of the BBC's flagship Newsnight programme, is no Airhead. but the consummate professional interrogator and interviewer. This is not really an autobiography, and there is little in the way of any meaningful spotlight on her personal and private life. Instead, this is a commentary on the nature of the news business, where so often the best laid plans go awry, looking at our contemporary world with its political and social realities, and the collection of often memorable interviews conducted by the ambitious Maitliss. Written in an easy reading style, there are an array of anecdotes, the back stories, soundbites, and compromises integral to TV news and interviews, giving us a well observed and insightful glimpse and coverage into the behind scenes world that is Maitlis's everyday life. The interviews cover leading global figures, from politics, such as US presidents, the arts, like Emma Thompson, and religion, like the Dalai Lamai, alongside a raft of other celebrities.

I can't say that I thought every interview she has conducted has been a success, but there have been some excellent ones. She is confident, hard nosed, skilful, and effective, often witty and humorous, and even compassionate on occasion. This is a light, well written and entertaining read that throws some light on the complex, perceptive and intelligent personality that is Emily Maitless, with brief coverage of her personal troubles with a stalker. Maitlis has since added an additional bow to her stellar career with her recent groundbreaking interview with Prince Andrew that made headlines around the world. I rcommend this to all those who are interested in the world of TV news, portrayed through the life of one of the leading talented BBC news presenters. Many thanks to Penguin Michael Joseph.

I was looking forward to reading this book so much. I honestly thought it would be the perfect book for me - I love autobiographies and this had a whole list of celebs (from politicians to musicians) whom I thought it would be really interesting to read about. Not so, for me. It felt like a series of vignettes about famous people and I didn't feel like I learned anything besides what is already in the public domain. Unfortunately this book was a let down for me.

I put off reading this for a while because I wasn't in the mood, but was so pleased to have it after the infamous interview of late last year. Fascinating read.

Great book with fascinating accounts and observations of some of the most powerful people on the planet. Well worth a read with lots of great humour as well as serious analysis of some current politicians. Sure to be on every politics junkies Christmas list this year!

Interesting series of snapshots of interviews and a glimpse into how a tv news show is made. I'm not a regular viewer of Newsnight so most of the stories within the book were new to me. Enjoyed the author's writing style, and particularly enjoyed the Alan Patridge tale. Also interesting to see a different side to some our 'famous faces' -Piers Morgan and Gordon Ramsey being most memorable.
Great book to dip in and out of. Enjoyed!

It's a fun read, but doesn't have much substance to it - I was hoping for thrilling revelations, but it's too frothy for that.

Confession I full expected NOT to like Emily Matliss. But actually I bl**dy love her. Her writing is sharp, funny and powers across the pages. She is clearly excellent at her job because it is never about her - always about the story. In retelling some of her famous encounters and recalling those she has interviewed she approaches her profession and the world she occupies humbly and honestly. It's the richness of this detail that gives the reader a real inside track on a working life many of us are clueless about.My only irk was that some of the self-deprecation wasn’t necessary. Emily you are brilliant at your job and you are a fabulous writer – own it! I hope she writes more because this was brilliant.

*Disclaimer: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I don't often watch the news but the times I have Emily Maitlis has struck me as a brilliant broadcaster. This was particularly true in the recent Prime Ministerial candidate debate where she dealt with the five candidates with honest and insistent questioning.

Telling a series of stories about different events and news stories that Emily has covered over the years, this book is at times deeply saddening and at others hilarious. The author writes with candidness and honesty about the interviews she has conducted and the world events that she has had to attend. Although the stories themselves do not necessarily link together in any way, the overarching theme of the book, as the subtitle suggests, is to show how the news is made and the mistakes that are inevitably made along the way.

I found myself reading this at every opportunity I had; the differing stories kept my interest throughout and I enjoyed seeing Emily's behind-the-scenes take on some of her most memorable interviews. 

Overall I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in journalism or politics, whether you are familiar with Emily Maitlis or not. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would read anything else that this author publishes.

Great insight into the world of TV news

Emily Maitlis gives you the low down on life on the road interviewing politicians as well as the odd Chippendale...

It's an easy read with some great anecdotes, particularly the Bill Clinton gift shop one and gives you some great insight into the pressures and processes that go into making TV interviews despite the sometime chaos that is happening off camera.

You even get the background on how she starred in the latest Alan Partridge show too!

This wasn't my normal interest but thought I'd have a change and glad I did. It's more behind the scenes insight than autobiography but well worth a read and Maitlis is obviously a good writer (makes a change from celebrities having 'ghost writers'). I hope she writes an actual autobiography as well at some stage. The only thing I'd add is that I think this would probably sell best in the Christmas market but Maitlis is high enough profile to be popular any time. Recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin UK/Michael Joseph for ARC.

I enjoyed Airhead. It’s more of a collection of vignettes that a full memoir, which means that I tended to dip in and out of it, but a few sections at a time make very good reading. Each section describes a memorable interview or event which Emily Maitlis reported on, with background detail and some personal reflections.

This isn’t really an autobiography or even a memoir. We get personal details of Maitlis’s life and career only as they impinge on the story she’s covering at the time – like the Grenfell Tower disaster, because she lives close by and spent the day working as a volunteer there – and I could have done with a little more background. Nonetheless, she is quite self-critical and examines her motives and actions in some depth at times; she gives a very good flavour of some of the ethical dilemmas faced by reporters and doesn’t always conclude that she did the right thing. I found this aspect of the book very interesting and rather admirable.

The book is well structured and prose is very readable, although (perhaps inevitably) there is sometimes a little too much journalistic punchiness for my taste. You know the sort of thing: talking of Hungary, “The eyes of the world are once more upon it. But not in the way of old.” That trick of a full stop and new, verbless sentence, rather than a comma can get a bit wearing after a while. She doesn’t overdo it too badly, but it did grate on me a bit.

Maitlis emerges from the book as thoughtful, intelligent and perceptive with a surprisingly deep vein of self-doubt – which probably contributes to those qualities. There are some amusing moments, too, which always helps and I can recommend this as a readable, interesting and insightful book.

(My thanks to Penguin UK for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Whistle stop tour of some of the more memorable moments in recent years that has moulded and brought Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis to TV news and current affairs watchers attention.
Elections, Donald Trump and Brexit have brought such presenters more to the forefront despite the frustration that political interviews and programmes drone on about stuff we find altogether boring.
Emily Maitlis is a driven journalist in a male dominated world who beyond her natural good looks has succeeded at the BBC and fronted Newsnight with a degree of grace and an ear for a story.
Post Paxman she has come to our attention but she has been around for longer than than we may think.
Airhead: The Imperfect Art of Making News is Maitlis at her best describing what in her professional life she loves most. Getting that killer interview, remembering to ask the right questions and delivering a piece to camera that provides clarity and context.
Here in a book format she is able to unpack this process and explain her fears, rationale and motivations to be the best she can and tell those stories.
I found the book a compelling read; the many interviewees all have something to say and her role is secondary to the whole. She is honest, fearless, reflective and empathetic in this process and that comes across in her writing and recalling these meetings. How they came about, the issues at that time, what needed to be addressed and why sometimes things don’t go to plan.
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’s humility also shines through. Although not a perfectionist she worries if she missed something out or came over too forcibly. She cares about those she meets and isn’t just out for a good sound bite.
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.
Above all she is an intelligent journalist, a hard-working individual and the consummate professional.
Her book is refreshing and illuminating and allows more insight into her work and because of her openness perhaps reveals far more than she’d say if someone else interviewed her.
I hope Airhead is widely read, it isn’t a dry political read but a commentary on our busy modern lives. It is a book that will appeal to a broad section of readers since it is well written, engaging and filled with wit, emotion and energy. However, the quality that stands out most is the author’s integrity.