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>> all right, thank you. welcome, everybody. my name is robert mahoney to plead director and i would like to welcome the guests, media, friends of lindsey hilsum, staff and of course, we are here to discuss the new book which is a biography of the famous u.s. journalist, marie colvin. let me tell you a little bit about lindsey hilsum before we start the discussion. she is known to many of you. she is british, and started life i am told as an aid worker in latin america and africa. and progressed to journalism and i remember coming across her first of all because of her

reporting from rwanda in 1994. i think you are one of the few english language reporters there at the very beginning. lindsey had a very strong career in broadcasting in africa before she eventually moved to china for news where she is now the national news editor. she is covered most of the big stories of the last 15, 20 years including much of the middle east, the balkans and she was the bureau chief in china for several years. the reason that we wanted to do this was this book gives you an incredibly detailed and very how can i say, sympathetic at the same time, it is not a hagiography, he shows her as a reporter and storyteller and

the price she paid for what she did. we are very lucky to have with us, two of marie's childhood friends. marie grubb as some of you may know, on long island in oyster bay. she started school in journalism here in this region, working for a publication and then upi, for those of you that do not know, upi was a wire service that was a great score. i worked as a correspondent for a rival agency. they were very gutsy. because of that she got a great story. then she eventually moved to the sunday times of london. which at that time, had just

been acquired i believe by murdoch and was a big deal in the uk. there were several of the newspapers that appeared on sunday, the observer which was its rival, the sunday telegraph and that paper gave big splashes to for new stories. which cannot necessarily be said today. marie was a star on that newspaper. that is a little introduction to the top. i know that lindsey has set some of her remarks in the past in the context of the broader risks that journalists face. marie is exceptional, or was exceptional. in that she went to places when other people pulled out. we will cover some of this in the conversation i hope, when we talk about how today, most journalists wouldn't even be allowed by a news outlet and

security advisors to do what she did. but she did it anyway. without further ado i would like to ask lindsey to talk a little bit about the biography. the first thing i wanted to ask you was, you know, you set, for me, you set her work and you start at the point in the book where she is injured. covering a story in sri lanka. we will come back to the early lead because we have our guests here at the moment but i think i would like to start with an incident which defined marie for many people. although many of us including myself knew her before this happened to her. >> yes. >> the cover of the book shows her wearing an eye patch. maybe you can start by telling us how that happened? >> thank you very much, rob. marie was already famous when she lost the sight in her left

eye. and i'm going to read a passage in the book that shows how that happened. her eyepatch became part of her, really. she had one started with rhinestones for parties which is also very much marie. and then it became an emblem of her bravery. but it also became an emblem of the price she paid and sometimes the difficulty she had in reconciling the brave, bold, famous with the eyepatch, with the marie that she felt inside. let me just read a short passage to tell you how this happened. how she lost the sight in her eye. she would live with bad dreams for many years. but nothing prepared marie for their current nightmare that plagued her after she was shot. as she went to sleep her subconscious and reran what has

happened. the decision never resolving like a horror film stuck on a loop. in the dream, she is lying on the ground. seeing the flares, hearing machine guns fire and the soldiers voices, exactly as she heard them that pitch black night in sri lanka. before the moon rose over the field. these are her choices. she can stand up and shout, hoping they would see she was white and female, obviously a foreigner. she can try to crawl away, knowing that they will shoot anything they see moving. or she can lie still, waiting her feet. the decision will return whether she lives or dies but nothing will and do what is about to happen. she cannot rollback time nor can she push it forward.stand up, crawl away, lie still. stand up, crawl away, lie still. the choices on repeat. the drum beat louder and louder. she lies paralyzed. in real life, is hard to figure

out exactly what was happening. although later she understood it had been quite simple. they guided her into government territory, ran into an army as they ran the front line. her escorts fled back into the jungle the way they'd come. she lay there for about half an hour. alone and petrified. before making her fateful decision. journalist, american journalist! she shouted. as she rose with her hands up. suddenly, her eye and her chest hurt with the pain so cute she could there to breathe. they fired a grenade at her. as she fell she will his blood was dripping from her eye. she felt a profound -- in the desperate hope they stop shooting and help her, she shouted, maybe they would see she was a wounded foreign

civilian and not a guerrilla fighter. they yelled at her to stand up and remove her jacket. semi-she managed to stumble forward, hands in the air. every time she felt they shouted at her to get up again. in the nightmare, time freezes before the shot is fired and her life passes before her. the conflict she has witnessed across her mind. the old man in the basement in chechnya, the back of his head blown up by a russian rocket. the body of a peasant left in a long woolen suit that she came across. a young palestinian woman she watched die from gunshot wounds in beirut. he human body broken. her own body. it images rerun as she lay in her own bed until the next night when she would live it all again. i think that gives you some idea of what the extremes marie

went through and that is one of the reasons the book is called "in extremis". "in extremis" is something that she wrote. she saw her work as telling stories of people who lived "in extremis", going through the unendurable. and that it was important she said, to show people what really happens in wars. but she lived her own life "in extremis" too. and that is how i came across her. she was always a person who went further and stay longer. always the person who was that bit braver than the rest of us. and she was a person who always got the best story and made the best of us feel just a little bit ashamed. do you know what i mean? >> in reading the book, sometimes, men in particular,

war correspondents, want to breeze through the first half of the book and get to the bang bang. in the middle, you do not do that, you give a full picture of her life. i would like to reflect that by talking little about the first half of the book with you. about the young girl that grew up in a catholic family. one of five children on long island and maybe -- what, how did her upbringing affect her as an adult? what did she take from long island to these places like sri lanka? >> a couple of things. one was that she was incredibly bored. in oyster bay and long island. and she resolved that she would not live there the rest of her life. she was going to get out and see the world. quite early on. but she hasn't -- she had a stable back on and loved her

family, she was the eldest of five children. but she was rebellious. the first is about a game that they played as kids. there was a hill in the back of the house. the game was that each kid had a branch and they would climb out along it. and he won if you the person who climbed out furthest. right to the thin, the end where it might break and you might fall. and you might break. well, you can guess who was on the always won the game, can't you? who would climb out the furthest. and she was a rebel. sometimes she was a rebel with a cause. and the vietnam war, she was always out protesting. and the environment, she was always about the environment. then one of the entries in her diary which i love, you know to go to mass on sunday, and in

her diary she's rights to church, were many, mother and the father know like. and i thought in that rebellious girl, i could see something of the brave woman who i got to know many years later. >> absolute. did either of you have any, either of you to have any memories of her at that time that you like to share with us? >> well, you talked about her being rebellious and knowing that she was born with small-town suburban long island and she wanted to get out of there. i think that's a memory i have of marie. i think many of us -- were bored with long island and we knew we were going to get out of there but she really knew it. i think you could tell, when i think back on her in those years, i think she knew it at that point even if she wasn't possibly verbalizing that to her friends. took me a little of a wire longer to recognize those qualities that this was not the place i wanted to spend my life

for the way. but marie was always -- she was always independent. even though we had a very close-knit circle of friends and we are all very active, you mentioned vietnam war. i remember going to protest with her. marching down the town streets and everything. and she was just always a little bit more clear-sighted somehow. like escaping high school in the last year and going to brazil. it was kind of maybe a first step in that direction of like getting out of school a little early and i do know she finished a year early. >> she went to brazil and then she just never bothered to go back to school because she'd already done you know, the rest of it. become a national scholar. because i think one of the things i think is very important in understanding marie, and again is something, she is a rebel. she goes out with the boyfriend and gets drunk and smokes dope and they break into peoples

gardens and skinny dip in their pool. not you, the other boyfriend. [laughter] the bad boyfriend. >> they had all of the fun. >> a lot of fun with marie. so then, that boyfriend said to me, we would do that. and when i would turn around she was always reading her schoolbooks. she was always studying. so she has this mixture of adventurous nature with rebellion, but she always studied. and that again, it makes her a great journalist. someone who does not take no for an answer. but you know, knows her stuff, is always reading. >> apart from interviewing witnesses like youtube, can you explain to us how you got access to these intimate thoughts and experiences of marie as a young woman, a young girl? >> marie diaries all her life.

from the age of 13 right up until just before she was killed at the age of 56. some of these are just journalist nobles. mom would be most interviews with people but some of them were very intimate about her personal life and her feelings. in one of the things when she does something exceptional equipped she didn't sri lanka, it's very careful in very detailed and she knew when she was doing something what arnold journalists were doing she kept a very close record. and she left these to her last boyfriend. and he was also the executor of her will in the sunday times gave me access. and as one of the real moments for me, writing this was when i was on long island, and stony brook university i went to her home in oyster bay and her

family kindly open the basement and pulled out the books and papers which they had there. and in one of those books i found a little white plastic covered child's diary that had been left with the little key. they couldn't find the key anywhere. so as i opened it, my heart leapt because no one looked at the diary since marie locked it may be at the age of 14. and this was the diary that had you know, all of the stuff about the rebellion, she was 13 years old, a lot about you know everybody's wearing shorts to high school. i'm not sure i want to but i must for honors sake. [laughter] and very deep analysis of who sat next to him on the bus in which by looked at which girl and she actually offered her

entire record collection if they would make -- it didn't work. she adored him for at least i was a 20 pages. [laughter] you do remember! she adored him! i think i mean there is no sign that he even noticed her. you know which is the way it is when you are 13. isn't it? >> i remember marie as being -- >> do you have a microphone? >> i just remember marie as being -- rebellious but also she had a very good framework as you say, a good family and a strong enough it was exactly catholic or whatever but a strong idea of right and wrong, for sure. and that guided her in a lot of

ways. may she was always involved with projects and things, always seemingly on the right of advancing things, the war, ecology stuff and it was all kind of cutting edge at the time but she was always involved. i think her dad was kind of instrumental in that they were a very political family. her father was an alderman or something i think. and so there's always that sort of political kind of framework that she was dealing with as well. but a very strong idea of right and wrong. >> a thing is very interesting because in the one hand you absolutely, her father was like -- she really needed to rebel against him. and he was very progressive politically but not at all, in terms of the family he was the patriarch. and she was the, he didn't like his little girl doing some the things his little girl was doing. and his death, when she was 19, i think was a very significant moment in her life. because she thought she would have time to repair the rift

with her father. because it was quite a big drift but of course she never did because he died. she wrote in the letter that she never sent, it was in the diary. the rest of her life would be spent trying to make her proud of him. and in a way i think she was always trying to make her father proud of her. >> that comes across very strongly in the book. and if we can move out of oyster bay little and can you talk a little about what you think motivated her to get into journalism and how she got into journalism? >> she went to yale. at yale, she studied nonfiction writing, the great world war two general who wrote a fantastic book. which is very short book, it tells a story of five people in hiroshima after the bomb is dropped. it's not about weaponry, is not

about politics is about these peoples lives in the aftermath. and marie's best friend katrina remembers marie coming out of their and going, that is what i want to do. i want to tell these big stories in this human way. and she always said hiroshima was the best book ever written on the war and many of us would agree with that. and so that was what happened at yale. and then of course, she spent her time freelancing and she got a job. which she liked, because teamsters are tough guys and she likes tough guys. and you know great journalism, you get to go in and interview the guys who shoo the horses for the new york city and things like that she loved all that. then she got a job as you said and ended up in paris.

from paris, she managed to get a visa to libya. this was in 1986 on the eve of the reagan bombing. when reagan was about to bomb benghazi and marie got an interview with qaddafi. it was well known that qaddafi would tend to give interviews to women rather than men. the younger and prettier the better. and marie fit into that category. it was kind of creepy. i remember her telling us about it later. many years later he was predatory and putting his hand on her knee and she interviewed him on separate occasions. at that particular point there was one occasion where he brought out a little white dress and green shoes for her. she says i'm not going to wear that because it is too small. she always loved clothes. and she described her diary, she would describe you know of

course he was a complete gift with his gold cape and lizard skin shoes and sometimes the full military regalia with all the crazy metals. and the copy that she wrote, but her diary even more of the tiny details of what she was wearing. but this made her famous. initially interviewed him and then the bombing happened and it was a huge story. suddenly, marie called no longer an anonymous writer, she was a very brave woman that interviewed reagan used to call the mad dog of the middle east. you know, she interviewed him on the eve of the bombing. >> absolutely. with that, she leverage that. >> and in the sunday times, she got to go to beirut. at that point beirut was the

most dangerous city in the world. and you know, she was very insecure. she was in her early 30s . she was used to being a news journalist and suddenly, she says you should bang it out on the telex and send it off. there is a lot on technology in those days the way we used to do things. it was very different. now she was waiting for the sunday newspaper. and they say need a better story. and so one of the things that -- you have to do something to get you something different. or something better. and in 1987 marie and a photographer, tom -- they were in beirut. it was called -- a militia was defeating the palestinian refugee camp. and marie and tom bribed a

militia commander to cease for one minute. in that one minute, they would run across the no man's land to the camp. i mean think about it. there are snipers everywhere and you are not completely sure he's told every sniper not to shoot. any appointment to get across this rough ground. but they did it. and landed in the camp. it was very pleasant but there was a british surgeon. in a scottish nurse. her the only source of information for the outside world. had a radio it was like sending sos messages every day. i remember how we were all glued to what was happening to the dr. and susie. and there was a path, which the women would go up to get food to bring back to the camp.

and a woman went out and was coming back in and she was shot. anne-marie what the story about -- a young woman her early 20s. and there was another just very short, marie's description of this woman who was dying on the operating table. her hair was cluttered with blood, she seemed younger now that she'd been clean. her body was soft and shapely. she wore two tiny gold earrings. someone open her fist and cleaned out the bloodsoaked dirt she'd clenched in her pain. i think is a pretty extraordinary description. this incident, had a huge impact on marie.

the 24 hours, she spent there had a huge effect on marie. and this was because her story had an impact. the militia was sponsored by leader of syria. and he was sponsored by gorbachev. and gorbachev could be pressured. and in that time the sunday times was a very important newspaper. within three days that has been lifted. partly becauseof the story , the photographs and marie's copy. the image of the young woman lying on the path, her lifeblood seeping into the dirt had never left her. -- years later, she would talk about that day. and about the horror and fear amongst the palestinians. she was part of her story. believing this had made a

difference. and the sunny day newspaper journalist at the time to get right into the middle of whatever situation she was reporting on. a variation of -- if the pictures are good enough you're not close enough. as a journalist you might remain in safety but not marie. she would get up close. her would be distinguished -- i think the story and that young woman is tremendously influential on marie. that was the commitment which she felt telling the story of the victims of the war. that piece, the war on women. again, it was a lot about the politics and the big picture. it was about a war on woman and her story had an impact. >> to that point, one of the things that she had to battle what was a very male world at the time. you notice from your own experience. >> yes.

>> what to the fact that she was a woman, bring, did it bring a different sensibility? did she bring something to the reporting? because a lot of male colleagues at the time were into the hardware strategy or what we call the bang bang of it all. not necessarily the story of one individual person. ... night after night after night and that is what she did. and of course they have a fit

of female bit of female company. that was about day one of the boys they helped and she was not very interested in whether it was a 252 or t72. it's about people's lives i certainly no mail correspondence nowadays who would agree. after she had been there. she was very celebrated in 1999 there was a referendum on independence. sponsored by the indonesian government started to run rampage around the island. and they pulled that out. and they were left with two

dutch journalists. and there is a funny story about this. she did not consult the foreign editor. they called them afterwards. and by the way i'm saying. where have the men gone. i guess they don't make men like their use two. it's so unfair. it's just as brave as seen in the compound. not one of the good stories. they were human shields. it was a very brave thing to do. she was very celebrated when she came out.

i could not leave because i have shared dear rice. and i thought it would be that. i just couldn't do it. she didn't feel like her bravery have anything to do with her gender. apart from one thing. marie always worked through the utilitarian step. she always had that on underneath. she managed to get back to the hotel at some point after it was the end of the crisis where she had abandoned her hotel. it have to run to the compound. and she thought much to her amazement that the guerrillas have used that underwear but

not her lifejacket which was still there. >> one of the things that you mention in there is the impact that she have. i remember at the time of her death one of the things that was quoted about her from a speech that she given. she have talked about bearing witness. could you elaborate a little bit on what she meant by bearing witness. every year now we have a service to commemorate journalists who had lost their lives. that was 2010. it was the first year that they have it. it was one of the memories i head of murray which i will never lose. they were slightly too short for church. and with her eye eyepatch and her glasses to read.

she goes over with a lot of these issues. what is bravery in bur brought up. we take risks but sometimes we are taking risks for other people. what is our responsibility there. the and nature of war it doesn't change. it is still about victims and people living under bombs and trying to survive. and however people get interested in looking at drone footage and so on. that's not what it's about. it's about what happens on the ground. she meant they have to be there and that if you in the as a journalist or not there. you're not bearing witness.

that was her huge strength and that is why she was killed. in writing this book. are the feelings any different from getting to know her as a complete individual. there were times in researching this book that i got so angry with her. i got so angry with her she was a step mother at one point in her life. that was a point where i just head to go for a walk. >> there were other parts i couldn't work out what was true and what was not.

and that's when i really miss her. you won't believe what really happened. the thing i did not understand completely without vulnerable she was. i like to think of us as the thelma and louise. of course i saw her drunk on a couple of occasions. and also i knew that she have suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder. i think it comes down to this. people are often ask journalists like me who do international affairs help difficult is it to be out there and in these situation and then come home.

there is an adjustment but for murray i don't think that was the real issue. she loved her life in london. very supportive circle of friends mainly female friends. it was this image of herself. she felt vulnerable and shaky. i think she have to face up to that. it took her a long time to face up to that. you mentioned syria. that is a big part of the book and the film. that has just come out about her. she have a story she started to go out of a journalist left.

this is really why i wrote the book. it's february 2012. we are both in beirut and we have suffered -- supper. we were discussing being smuggled into syria. the three of us said it's too dangerous. walsh -- off she went. and having to crawl through a storm drain that's like a sheet sewer. she goes to the widow's

basement. she has said that the only people in this placer terrace. she gave the lie to the official line. you have to leave. and they left. she wrote the story it was an incredible story and i sent that that was it. and then the next hurt she is back in. i got a message from her back in. not sure it's my wisest move. and she wanted to do that.

i called her in the first thing i said was what the heck are you doing. it's the worst we've ever seen. what is your exit strategy. we're working on it now. eight hours later she was killed. she went back and because she was totally committed to that story she felt like she was she felt guilty that she was abandoning them. you are blurring the lines between the celts and the people your reporting on. she did not live to tell the tale. she was killed.

i think that is a good point we do have a microphone. please take a microphone. >> does anyone had any questions? see mecca one of the things that you mentioned was that the freedom and the challenge of reporting for a sunday paper was this drive to get something that is not being reported in the daily news. how does that compare or expanded. look, that has been what i've just been talking about.

that enabled the forces to intercept the signal. and so they know they were trying to find the journalist there is court case. with the help of it does this kind of nonprofit work. they have the testimony that says that is what is what led to her death. that is one example of the danger i think they are

teaching all of the time in journalism but now you have something some short, short things online and there is a bit of an appetite for much longer for him step. but certainly with the change in the landscape and newspapers not making so much money anymore. they don't necessarily had safety equipment. and helping with training in the many things that they need on the ground.

they are reporting their own stories. and when you talk about marie's death. there are several other foreign correspondents had been killed in the world of syria. in more than a hundred. journalists had been killed. >> and glad you raised that. we are working with the very year that she was killed there were 30 other deaths of journalist. i see some other hands for questions. i have a question when you are talking about her decision to go back she was covering in

1987 when she was in lebanon and can kevin -- covering at the siege there. and one of the things that she was most proud of was that a couple of days after that story do you think in your reporting for that book it was something there was a possibility of a similar outcome. is that something more generally continued to motivate her throughout the career. i think one of the things that you see in this book is how how much less of a impact over

the duration of her life. it's really significant for all of us doing this can work when a story like that would have an impact on this is for all sorts of reasons who really don't care. and due to the whole international political session has changed. you don't have the same importance. to counter that though. i feel like they have just made no difference and everybody was ready back then. and they had continued with the were exactly as he have always done.

of course now we have an example which is the killing it has been so shocking that has an impact. with the reporting. in yemen. and it is starting to protect about it. even in britain there are some stirrings is because of the death of jamaal custodio. i have kind of despaired of any of our work having any impact and now we have this strange irony. >> i feel sad anyway. there is tremendous reporting on what is going on. one journalist had to be

strangled and dismembered. i find it very sad. a lot of the work that we've been doing we been doing with free lances in syria that comes from what happens in syria. and then she was in sri lanka. do you think that that would be her shield i don't know is the answer. i don't think that marie that

she would have any protection. were talking about artillery strikes. the artillery strikes which were coming in every few seconds at that point. and i think she thought that it would be any protection. sure enough not only was it not protection it was what made her a target. >> that fits in with what we see here in the bigger picture. in the 70s and 80s to say that you were are an american journalist and instead of being a shield she became a target. >> that is the question now. i think in a sense there are many different things in this book. when people asked me what the

book is about. apart from that it is about the arc of journalism and what has happened. that is a story of marie's life. did you have a follow-up. they influenced that influence that generation of female reporters. with the female journalists particularly. when they started to work for the sunday times.

he would never write i saw. this reporter saw. emery didn't do that. it wasn't that she was writing about herself and me zero my she never did that. but it was i saw this. and this man told me this. everybody does that now. it's also the issue of blurring the boundaries. about this new kind of journalism spearheaded by emery which was about you are not meaning in the refugee camp.

but going to the place where the refugees were coming from. she is to carry around a copy of the face of war. with a very selected work. i like to think of the young females. she was very kind too young journalists. men and women a while as well. marie let me share her room. marie gave me some money.

one of the things that their friend. they call the generous network. often a lot of obstacles. not getting sent on the interesting assignments. not getting training. it was a pretty smooth projection. we do safety training and counseling. i would like to think that she would like that project in her name. trying out the new generation.

>> think you. i mentioned with the certain like act of german journalism. it's kind of fading. it's one owns generation. we are looking back on a generation. we're seen this people.

she does represent this particular time in general. it was a time of intervention. there was a huge interest in oversea rules. there was is huge interest in all that. it isn't the same amount of interest. it's not as great as it was. this reporting did not make a difference they didn't make a difference. she believed and i believed

that even if she doesn't make a difference ignorance is the worst thing. we should be able to say that in the end to me is the significance of it. you're more and more online outlets. and people get blurred between opinion and reporting. i do think that the era of the great will marie who gave the best parties in london. i do think that era is over. i'm happy.

as long as there's gonna be conflict there is good to be someone that says i need to be go and be the witness and tell the tale. there's always someone down the road. that carries on that tradition. i'm kind of curt curious if you think was she more willing to head herself. in harms way. she have the alcoholism problems or whatever. do you think a lot of those personal issues allowed her to put her self there.

i dig is a really good question. i think there are many people on the sunday times who think that she should've been should of been taken off of the road after she left it in her eye. she was too vulnerable and arguably she was disabled. emery did not want to do that. she defined herself by the work that she did. i think most of us who do that kind of reporting define ourselves by what we do in many struggle to get that balance and if you don't have a happy home life it becomes more difficult. to maintain the balance. that would certainly be true of marie. her judgment was impaired.

i don't think she have any kind of death wish. she sent me an e-mail just before she went back and asking for the contact for the visas for iran. i'm in a go i don't care for him going to my death. she did not care enough about her own safety. it is about the extremes in her personal life as well. >> please go ahead you have

eluded that we haven't gotten into so much detail i wonder how much of that you would say inherent in the profession and how much was her on that what what that would mean for your advice to the younger female journalists going into the profession? with the broken merited -- marriages. i don't think it makes any difference there. it is very difficult to keep a relationship going dutch is how just how it is. i think there is much more understanding of alcoholism

and drug problems. we were in front of an audience as that young people of amnesty in london. marie looks at me. and then looks back at the audience. lindsay and i we go to bars and we drink. it went too far when she drank far too much. i think people are much more conscious of that now than they were.

it's no longer about the stigmas you used to have. he would not admit it it was a sign of weakness particularly as a woman. that has really changed most of them have hotlines and it's understood. it is not, you don't have to tell your manager necessarily. as a very different atmosphere you don't necessarily have excesses to those.

i think that is the next hurdle. we had time with time for one more question. >> i just had a quick question about your process of writing the book because, the legacy obviously rests in the fact that she went further than most to get the story. how did you just because the means by which she gained access is not necessarily advised for journalists how did you manage to make that determination between the importance of her work and also not necessarily condoning the ways in which it is a good question.

there is a little bit of me are you going to write we all feel that. i hope showing the price that she paid for this i hope it will be clear that this is not an yes i think one of the things i feel very strongly about. based on the book by the

photographer's report. who survived. it is incredible documentary we are concentrating on louise. i felt very strongly that i wanted to write about her life. i want to write about the amazing stories that she did. how witty she was. and how clever she was. i wanted to write about the whole person. in writing about marie i could in some way to bring her back to life. what you have done as you have

brought out the funny side. someone who is great company. she wasn't all earnest. thank you and congratulations on a wonderful piece of work. thank you for coming, our guest and think all of our colleagues from cb jay. and thanks to lindsay. [applause]. you're watching book tv on c-span two. top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. television for serious readers. over the past 20 years we had

covered thousands of author events and book festivals here's a portion of a recent program. i have all of my has lined up. the week that i'm about to go into the white house this little scandal name monica lewinsky broke and no one would talk to anyone. they did this whole huge story that said only a fool would be writing about the white house right now. what's going on is so crazy that you can't compete with it. and no one should be writing it. zero my gosh. and that full. but i was obsessed with the white house.

i just wanted to know what goes on in there. how does the president get out. the eventually let me in. i and the fiction writer. i'm the guy that goes in. i bet you can find footage of me going to the white house. i have the head person of the investigation in the white house talking to me. they all wanted to be. i was in there what's it like when the whole world is staring down at a controversy like this. here's the best part. this tiny little tv show debuts for the first time. everybody in that moment in time becomes interested in the white house again.

it's the biggest book i have ever done at this point. the only dummies that have anything to do with the white house was the west wing and me. the book took off. you can watch this in any of our programs in their entirety. type the author's name in the search bar. [inaudible conversations] welcome.