Conducting interviews for this paper over the past 20 years, I’d say I’ve developed only one relatively fail-safe “technique”. If the interviewee, famous or otherwise, is batting questions away, refusing to open up at all, I’ve come to believe that there is one question always worth trying in order to turn things around. It’s this one: “What kind of a man was your father?” At worst, this question elicits a flinch and a look of sadness or puzzlement; at best, it proves immediately revealing of the way an interviewee thinks or feels or defines him or herself. Either way, it changes the mood, generates some ease or discomfort. It’s tempting to imagine that while mothers, at least to begin with, nurture our emotional development, dads offer us our first real opportunity to employ our critical faculties: everyone has a strong opinion about their old man.
It’s this well of judgment and inquiry and reminiscence that the magazine features editor and writer Ted Kessler tapped into when he first began a blog about his own father, three years ago, and invited people to add their own memories. Some of the people who wrote about their fathers were famous – Chris Martin, Rod Stewart, Florence Welch (Kessler works at the music magazine Q) – and some were sons and daughters of famous fathers – Adam Cohen, son of Leonard; Jemima Dury, daughter of Ian. These are collected in this poignant and often moving book, alongside pieces from writers and journalists in the same vein.
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