Last year, almost every Sunday morning for three months, I sat at my dining table interviewing writers in many different time zones, sitting at their own desks and dining tables, via Zoom.
The big Covid lockdown had scuppered the Auckland Writers Festival, so director Anne O'Brien created the 2020 Winter Series. Over 12 weeks I interviewed 37 writers and Tina Makereti interviewed another three on my one Sunday holiday. Total views for the series were more than 72,000, with people tuning in from all over the world – especially for big international names like Bernadine Evaristo, fresh from her Booker win, and Neil Gaiman.
The format was simple: each Sunday at 9am we went live for an hour. I interviewed three writers in turn – four in the final week – and then we had a group chat, four faces on the screen like a bemused, brainy version of The Brady Bunch. Audience members watching on Facebook or YouTube could submit questions. What could go wrong?
Actually, very little – thanks to all the activity behind the scenes. One week, at the last minute, Hamnet author Maggie O'Farrell had an emergency, so Christine Fernyhough, the best of sports, was summoned from her bed (and her holiday). Luckily, I'd already read her book, Mid-Century Living: The Butterfly House Collection, and she turned out to be one of our most eloquent and interesting guests.
Every week, the people you couldn't see on the screen, cameras off and mute buttons on, were working. Francis Van Kuijk ("van Kow-k", I typed into my script) was the Auckland Live whiz who kept everyone quiet or visible at the right time. Festival staff were trawling for viewer questions and then typing them into a Google doc open on my laptop: I'd check it during the live-reading interludes.