Caitlin Moran

For over twenty years, Cailtin Moran has been a name which is synonymous with The Times. She is perhaps best known as a wickedly funny columnist for The Times Magazine, where her frank and humorous writing is beloved by the readers. But what is often overlooked is her talent as an interviewer, and her ability to reveal her subjects’ secret selves.

She spent the day with Greta Thunberg at Glastonbury Festival, before and after the viral surprise speech that Thunberg gave. It was a tough interview to secure because Thunberg refuses to give interviews to journalists who fly to meet her (due to the climate impact) and also because the fact Thunberg would be giving a speech at Glastonbury was only known about by a handful of people. Moran revealed the nineteen year old behind the headlines. The remarkable climate change activist said she’s never been drunk, gives away her earnings and can’t imagine a normal future for herself. So unique was this interview that it was bought and syndicated by publications around the globe. Interviewing Reverend Richard Coles required Moran to step foot in a church for the very first time. She witnessed Britain’s favourite vicar give his last church service, following his decision to resign as a parish priest. In an emotional and probing interview, Moran drew Coles on his disillusionment with the Church of England as well as the death of his partner in 2019 due to alcoholism. Rather than a stilted Zoom interview, Moran spent the day with one of her idols, the comedian Bob Mortimer, in his hometown of Middlesbrough. In between visiting Middlesbrough FC football pitch, the house Mortimer grew up in, and a fish and chip shop, they discussed how the problems in Mortimer’s early years came thick and fast. From his father’s death to living in a homeless shelter, and depression after an LSD trip, she told how a shy lonely man with a heartbreakingly sad childhood became a comedy legend.