More thrills than skills – A half-life in journalism, part 72

Over the next few weeks, allmediascotland.com is to publish, each weekday, edited extracts from the memoirs of Scottish war correspondent, Paul Harris. ‘More thrills than skills: A half-life in journalism’, is being scheduled for publication next year.

WASHING to New York doesn’t look such a long way on the map, but it’s five hours’ drive.

My publisher, it seems, can’t afford plane tickets. We arrive next day in time for a scheduled interview on talk radio, WBAI. I am momentarily non-plussed when it becomes clear they are going to allow Phyllis, my publicist, to do the whole interview.

The IBA wouldn’t allow that sort of thing in the UK.

Phyllis gets around ten mentions of the book title, the publisher’s address and telephone number and the post paid price of the book into the 20-minute interview. I stand and watch helplessly from behind the studio glass feeling rather thirsty.

On to another public meeting on Bosnia, this time at New York University.