An Education

One day in 1992 I went to work as usual at the Independent on Sunday and the doorman handed me a message slip and said, 'This man has been phoning all night.' The message said, 'Ring Alan Green,' and gave a Jerusalem number. Now, as it happened, Alan Green, the Director of Public Prosecutions, was front page news that week because he had been caught kerb-crawling prostitutes in the King's Cross area. And it is a mark of how crazed with self-importance I was at the time that I immediately thought, 'Oh good. The DPP wants me to interview him.' What more natural than that he should want to give an exclusive to the hottest interviewer in London? I didn't even pause to wonder why he was in Jerusalem. So I rang the Jerusalem number and said, 'Can I speak to Alan Green?' And this horrible cooing voice at the other end said, 'Minn! Bubl has been pining for you all these years.' I dropped the phone like a burning coal and didn't speak again all day.

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