The iconic Tina Brown on her Hillary Clinton biography, being fascinated by Sonia Gandhi and feeding the ‘beast’.
After her delicious warts-and-all biography on the late Princess Diana, one of the most formidable editors in the world Tina Brown is training her literary guns on Hillary Clinton. “Yes, I have a commitment to do a book on Hillary Clinton which will take another year-and-a-half to do,” says Tina, who threw an opening dinner at the Jaipur Literature Festival last night.
Revealing the schemers and dreamers and notorious ‘other woman’ (Camilla Parker-Bowles) that plagued the people’s princess’ world in The Diana Chronicles, Tina admits, “The hardest part was that you’re dealing the most private class in England. And also, the more difficult aspect was that they’ve been so many bad books about Diana, scandalous and trashy books, so a lot of people involved not only had to get over their sense of privacy but felt like they’d been burned by these bad books. But I did manage to overcome that and talked to over 250 people, many of whom had never spoken before.”
Having edited The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Tatler, Tina is currently co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast, her powerhouse e-zine. In an age where advertising and PR sharks can blur the line of true journalism, does she feel there’s more creative freedom with an online product? “I do! I wouldn’t right now be working in print. I love this new form — working online; it’s very very creative and what has been exciting for me has been the challenge of getting very high quality writing, very fast. And you can! The very best thinkers know what they want to say and can very easily,” says Tina.
Eternally intrigued by writers, ask Tina if there’s anyone she’d like to interview in India? “I would like to talk to Sonia Gandhi; I’m actually quite fascinated by her. I think that whole family story is so incredible. In fact, one of my favourite books is Indian Summer by Alex Von Tunzelmann, that wonderful book about Edwina Mountbatten and Nehru.”
After all these years, what drives her every morning to get up and feed the ‘beast’? “I have a passion for journalism. I’m also married to a journalist, Harold Evans. I have this curiosity about the world, this desire to just go out and cover a story. It’s in my blood, it’s an addiction. I should be in rehab for it!” she ends, with a laugh.
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