Overall, this was disappointing. TBF, I didn't really know anything about Emily Maitliss before reading this, but I guess I assumed that since she's a journalist covering stories of national and international interest and extremely serious cases this book would be analytical and informative.

I was wrong.

Instead it touches very lightly on a number of high-profile interviews and TV spots Maitliss has been involved in. Many powerful men have their words repeated by her without any response or rebuttal, whilst she breathlessly fangirls about their charisma. Many minor criticisms of Maitliss' reporting technique are dismissed, to the background of horrific tragedies which are mainly barely commented on. Many very boring texts and tweets are repeated verbatim, to no obvious end.

Not only is this book dull, but on occasion the lack of contrasting viewpoints and complete absence of even a hint of debate is ignorant, and even downright dangerous. Most egregious is possibly the section when Maitliss draws comparison between Rachel Dolezal's actions and the experience of transgender people. At one point she even includes a tweet from an anti-transgender troll, which she apparently takes at face value. Then having skipped lightly over this painful and difficult issue she moves on, without offering any hint of the opposing view. Or indeed any indications that she understands the issue at all. Similarly contentious is the section when she jumps from covering the horrific experiences of migrants crossing Europe to effectively blaming them for Brexit. At best, clumsy. At worst, inflammatory. A nadir is reached when Maitliss manages to fawn over Prince Andrew even whilst questioning him on his membership of a paedophile ring. Truly horrifying stuff.

A significant amount of the book is just fluff - asking Simon Cowell about his ex-girlfriends or Jon Stewart about his father issues. A fair amount of it is self congratulation for the amazing value and impact of her interviews. And some of it is personally offensive to me - discussing what good friends she is with Piers Morgan, or inexplicably describing Jeremy Clarkson as "profoundly anti-establishment".

I was hoping for light essays with a sociopolitical angle, informed by the many years an intelligent woman has spent at the heart of news journalism. What I got was a somewhat self-serving memoir by a woman living in a comfortable upper-middle-class media bubble who is unaware of the extent to which she neglects to question the establishment. At times I was almost embarrassed for her, as she basically giggles and twirls her hair whilst interviewing Bill Clinton and Jon Stewart, or concludes a section on Grenfell by discussing how hard television journalism is. But more often I felt let down by her - an intelligent, educated woman in a position of power who seems to be wasting chance after chance to make a difference.