Where’s the fun in that? Give me a monster every time – someone who throws tantrums, hurls insults, storms out, and generally creates mayhem. So welcome, Marianne Faithfull! This is probably the most enjoyable interview I’ve ever done. It won me my fifth Press Award. I came out of our encounter thinking: I can’t wait to write this up. And when my editor rang the next day to ask how the interview went, instead of my usual laconic, ‘Not bad,’ I said firmly, ‘It was great!’ From the Observer, 15 July 2001 Marianne Faithfull once said, ‘I am a Fabulous Beast, and as such, I should only be glimpsed very rarely, through the forest, running away for dear life.’ How wise she was. If I were ever asked to interview her again, I would turn into a Fabulous Beast myself and hightail it to the forest. I first glimpsed Her Fabulousness ages ago at a restaurant in Notting Hill, 192, where she was sitting all alone at lunchtime reading the papers. 192 was a very sociable sort of table-hopping restaurant, so I thought there was something faintly sad about her solitude.
