Alain Elkann Interviews

WE DEFEND INCREDIBLY BRAVE WRITERS WHO RISK EVERYTHING FOR THE TRUTH. Jennifer Clement is an American-Mexican author whose novels have been translated into 30 languages. In 2015 she was elected the first woman President of PEN International (PEN stands for Poets, Essayists, Novelists), a worldwide association of writers founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere.

The great Toni Morrison. Born in 1931 in Lorain, Ohio, Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize in Literature winning novelist, an editor, and a teacher. Beloved won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988, and Toni Morrison's novels are known for their epic themes, exquisite language and the richly detailed African-American characters who are central to their narratives. Toni Morrison lives in a sun-filled house by the Hudson River. On a Saturday afternoon Victoire Bourgois and I took a ride 45 minutes up the Hudson River with a driver who had lived his whole life in New York and pointed to us all the different areas of New Jersey, Upstate, Yonkers, Connecticut. When we arrived she greeted us warmly, and when talking about her writing process she said: 'My desk does not face the river, otherwise I would not do a thing all day but watch the river. Here there is a mixture of salt water and tidal movements and fresh water, because it is so close to New York City.'

FOLLOWING THE GYPSY FAERIE QUEENE. My interview with MARIANNE FAITHFULL took place in her flat on the Boulevard du Montparnasse in Paris on a lovely autumn day in 2018.

REINVENTING LONDON'S LEGENDARY LUXURY HOSPITALITY. International entrepreneur Paddy McKillen has a passion for the hospitality business and property development. In 2004 he was part of a group that bought four of London's 5-star hotels: Claridge's, The Berkeley, The Connaught and The Savoy.

The following interview with the architect Zaha Hadid (1950-2016) took place in the Royal Academicians' Room in the Keeper's House at the Royal Academy of Arts in London's Mayfair. The invited audience was generously welcomed by Charles Saumarez Smith, then the Secretary and Chief Executive of the Royal Academy.

CONNECTING HUMANS AND NATURE. I interviewed the eminent Japanese architect Tadao Ando at Château La Coste, the beautiful hotel and vineyard located near Aix-en-Provence, where Ando was opening a show of his drawings in the art centre that he built in 2011. Afterwards, Ando was going on to Paris, as he is restoring and rebuilding the Bourse de Commerce building to become a museum that houses the Pinault Collection.

Julian Fellowes is an English actor, novelist, film director and screenwriter, known for the screenplay for the film Gosford Park and as the creator, writer and executive producer of the multiple award-winning television series Downton Abbey. In this 2015 interview, he discusses the characters he develops for Downton Abbey and the sometimes surprising way in which his public responds to them.

Dr. Montefiore is a historian of Russia and the Middle East. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he has been awarded the Literary Prize Lupicaia del Terriccio 2017 for his book 'The Romanovs: 1613-1918'. He is the author of 'Catherine the Great and Potemkin: The Imperial Love Affair', 'Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar', 'Young Stalin' and 'Jerusalem: The Biography'. Also a novelist, he completed his Moscow trilogy in June 2017 with the publication of 'Red Sky at Noon'.

Suzy Menkes is a leading British journalist and fashion critic. Formerly the fashion editor for the International Herald Tribune at the time of this interview she had been International Fashion Editor for 19 editions of Vogue online.

The leading architect David Adjaye OBE set up his first office in 1994, where his ingenious use of materials and his sculptural ability established him as an architect with an artist's sensibility and vision. Adjaye Associates now has four international offices, with projects throughout the world. He is the John C. Portman Design Critic in Architecture at Harvard University and designed the National Museum of African American History and Culture.