Interview Time with Lisa Gerard-Sharp
Lisa Gerard-Sharp is an international travel writer with unrivalled experience in the fields of exploring the world, seeking out the next big thing and generally being down right fabulous. She’s a writer for Vogue, a regular on the Travel Channel and a prominent member of the British Guild of Travel Writers. In fact she’s so well published that the chances are - if you’ve picked up an in flight magazine on any route through Europe - you’ve read one of her pieces. Rob Savage managed to pin Lisa down for a few minutes to discuss how she got to where she is today and what it’s like to live the life.
1. When you were growing up – what did you want to be and are you anywhere close to that today?
Predictably, a novelist – but Capricornians are notoriously slow starters so please check on my progress in 2050.
2. As a regular contributor, what is Vogue like on the inside? Is it The Devil Wears Prada-esque, the friendliest place in the world, all of the above or something completely different?
Despite its glossy aspirations, each international Vogue edition has its own ethos. My favourite, the Italian edition, feels the sexiest, boldest and, bizarrely, the most subversive. It has championed black models, cutting-edge photographers and avant-garde artists.
3. If you had to pick out the top interviews from your career so far, who would spring to mind and why?
Actors are rarely original in conversation but crusaders, fashion designers, artists and writers can make for good copy. Memorable characters include: Alexander McQueen, whose designs were as wry as his wit; murder mystery writer Donna Leon; and artist Marc Quinn, who has made artworks out of his own blood. Nor will I forget the anti-Mafia prosecutors who lived and died for their cause.
4. What’s the one thing that never fails to cheer you up – regardless of how rubbish the world can get?
On a moonlit night, spotting wild boar snuffle across the path outside our place in France.
5. Cheryl Cole or Dannii Minogue?
Dannii. Despite her dodgy name, Dannii passes as sophisticated in Australia. (I’m half-Aussie so I can almost get away with that). Both are cute if you dream of impish girls-next-door, but I don’t.
6. What are your top five favourite books?
Stand up for Euro-pseuds, voluptuous literature and life before X-Factor. (God, I’m beginning to sound like Stephen Fry). Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal makes poetry exotic, erotic and dangerous. Jean-Paul Sartre’s Nausea gives alienation a good name while Giuseppe di Lampedusa’s The Leopard is what E.M. Forster called “one of the great lonely books”. King Lear is Shakespeare at his blistering best. Adam Philips’ Monogamy is littered with lines such as: “A couple is a conspiracy in search of a crime. Sex is often the closest they can get”.
7. If you could restyle Simon Cowell – where would you start?
Drop those grandpa trousers (in private, please). Head to Zegna for sleek suits with the X-Factor; Paul Smith for `classic with a twist’ shirts; and Dolce & Gabbana for gay attitude.
8. Out of your travel writing portfolio so far, which piece in particular do you look at and think – that was really incredible to be a part of that?
Being crew on a ballooning world championships (we crash-landed just off an autoroute in the Loire Valley); being the sad single on a honeymoon cruise; Greenlandic dining on whale and seal on the Ice Cap; blindfolded truffle-hunting with a mad hunter who suspected I might poison his hound…stop me now...
9. If you were on the TV show Come Dine With Me, what would you cook up?
My secret weapon (my Italian partner, aka the one who cooks at home) would pass me the hand-rolled pasta and truffles, asparagus risotto and tiramisu while I dabbed my sweaty brow and snaffled the compliments.
10. Finally - what’s next in the travel writing pipeline for Lisa Gerard-Sharp?
In theory, it’s hitting the coastal cycling trail on the Italian Riviera. But it could just as easily be lounging with Rob, your esteemed travel editor, in some lounge club in Tenerife, for research purposes only…
