Have You Come Far?: A life in interviews

By Vaughan Grylls

We have all squirmed at an uncomfortable interview. Vaughan Grylls has squirmed at more than most. Having had more interviews in his lifetime than anyone should reasonably expect, Grylls, with exemplary powers of recall, recounts hilarious and often poignant years of painful interviews. They range from childhood interviews for schools, and then for colleges, for university jobs, for newspapers, and even for the sack. But Grylls has been on the other side of the desk as well, as a teacher and finally as the director of an art college, and this experience gives him a perspective on these excruciating rites of passage. In this entertaining and enlightening expose of the interview room, Grylls shows us all, at whatever age, what not to do.

Both an entertaining account of the life and work of a successful artist and educator who has held senior posts (and been interviewed for others) in both Ivy League and Cambridge Colleges as well as more modest institutions, and also a self-help book for anyone anticipating or planning for an interview. The life lessons are gently imparted with humor and sensitivity, while the critique of educational practice and the decline of the educational ideal is coruscating and vivid.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bitter Lemon Press
• Release date: Nov 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781912242504

Vaughan Grylls

Vaughan Grylls is an artist and writer who has been a VW enthusiast ever since he bought a 1956 Beetle in 1966. He has since owned more VWs than any other make of car. His two favourites are a 1966 Variant 1500S and a seventh-generation 2016 GTI. He lives in London and East Kent.