LA Times

Interviewed for LA Times article

PPDA

Schizophrenie Francaise was reviewed on legendary news presenter Patrick Poivre d'Arvor (PPDA)'s book show on LCI.

France Culture (Philippe Meyer)

Popular high-brow Sunday afternoon radio chat. With Max Gallo, Jean-Louis Bourlanges and Rene Souchon.

Le Progres

Le Progres
10/05/07

Emma Vandore
Schizophrenie Francaise
“The whole French system is designed to create elites who, once in power don’t only exercise power, but demonstrate it
Sub-titled Sego, Sarko Jacques et moi, this seriously funny and edifying book is the fruit of the observations of a young Scottish journalist after spending time in the corridors of the Elysee and other high places of French political power

Courrier Cadres

Courrier Cadres
May 2007

“How could one become French,” could have been written Montesquieu in heels. Emma Vandore, a Scottish reporter for Bloomberg News, covers French politics. She tells with humour what happens in the corridors of power. Chirac flirts with her, Villepin is courteous with her when she tries to initiate him to British food, this Bridget Jones of the media gives an acidulous account of our way of doing things. To savour.

Da Scaree Fash Post

Blog

France 3 Ce Soir ou Jamais

Ce soir ou jamais by Frederic Taddei. Popular evening chat show. Other guests included Peter Gumbel, Zoe Valdes, Zheng Ruolin, Jorge Edwards, Tariq Ramadan, Emile Abossolo M'Bo, Tahar Ben Jelloun

CNBC, LCP

Interviewed for CNBC on the morning after the first round. Then took part in a debate on LCP parliament TVwith Ted Stanger and Octavi Marti.

Radio Aligre

I was Patrick-Leon Emile's guest Saturday night on Radio Aligre, also known as Radio bo-bo because of the young trendy audience.

Paris-Glasgow blog

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Liberation

Liberation 20/04/07

A Scottish women embedded with the candidates.

On the eve of the election, here is a book where one of the last phrases rings true:
“Given what is at stake, the choice for French electors is 1) depressing, 2) desperately difficult, 3) really Cornelian. To arrive at this conclusion, Emma Vandore, a Scottish journalist with a caustic humour who lives in Paris proposes a personal walk through the microcosm of French media and politics. Very vivid and full of impressions of her discovery of our political habits (but also amorous or gastronomic), her story is the humorous account of an ordeal. One of a journalist stuck with the etiquette ‘Anglo-Saxon’ _ and thus considered an economic liberal _ by all her official interlocutors.. and even by her new French friends. Emma Vandore is one of the rare correspondents in Paris to directly cover all the political events she writes about. She follows Chirac on his trips abroad, chronicles the rise of Sarkozy and the Royal campaign, she tells in the form of a diary which begins in 2004 of her joys and disappointments living among these so ‘exotic’ French people. A Socialist grandee who she just met from Royal’s team puts a hand on her knee and proposes to be her mistress. When Chirac tells her of a youthful holiday in Scotland, the little Court of the Elysee can’t get enough of her. But when the no wins in the referendum,, those same people (both the yes and the no) become hysterical in her presence for different reasons. Sometimes playfully caricatured, she describes a nervous country, terrified by globalisation but where she is delighted to take advantage of the social benefits. The paradox of this book is that through her repeated and often beneficial criticism, Emma Vandore finishes by establishing without wanting to a defence of the Anglo-Saxon model. In short, her ordeal has only begun

France Info, Les Echos, i-Tele

Les Echos 18 April 2007
The electoral campaign from a Scottish viewpoint

The subject: French people are known for their vibrant language which reflects their culture. The English for their sense of culture which allows them to distance themselves from reality. Emma Vandore is “Scottish, or if you prefer British: European at a stretch,” but not “Anglo-Saxon” as most French people think. Correspondent for the Bloomberg press agency in Paris for three years, she uses a sharp humour and a certain candour to give, day by day, her reflections on the state of France, French people, and of course, the electoral campaign. Even if, as the author writes herself, Scottish people don’t have the same sense of humour as their English cousins.
The interest: The vision of the author mixes both parts of ordinary life and the wry vision of a journalist who follows the President of the Republic on his official trips abroad and attends his press conferences. A privileged position to describe the habits of the rulers. This book skims the topics of society and politics. But the critics on France, sometimes between the lines, should be read by all French people ready to abandon for a few moments _ only_ their susceptibility. France remains full of attraction for the author, who declares ready to stay after the presidential election.
The quote: “Come quickly Polish plumber! Paris needs you” written by the author when she discovered a bill for 700 euros from a Parisian plumber who hadn’t bothered to finish the job.


It all began very early in the morning on France Info where Mireille Lemaresquier asked me for my views on les petits candidates.
Later, I discovered that Jacques Hubert-Rodier had reviewed my book in Les Echos
In the evening, I was invited on Patricia Loison's evening show on i-tele.

Ouest France

Ouest France 17 April 2007

The views of foreigners on France is always interesting. That of Emma Vandore, a journalist at an American economic news agency, plunged into the run-up for our presidential election, is particularly sharp. Like a Persian in Paris, she discovers how much “in France, the state is at the centre of everything” and how much “the State-centric tendencies of the Paris elite” make people think “that a government is capable of imposing a single way of thinking or being.” See how in the country of equality she spends nine months trying to solve a problem with Noos, a mobile telephone service provider, until she finds direct access to a member of the governing team. In the country of variety, we reduce everyone who comes from the other side of the Channel or the other side of the Atlantic to the etiquette ‘Anglo-Saxon,” a world which is hostile to French values. A political journalist, she finds our respect for private life hypocritical. There are those who know and who speak about it, and those who don’t know who are informed by foreign newspapers, she says, amused. Emma takes a breath of fresh air by going to visit Breton farmers posing naked for a calendar. She notes wryly that French people have difficulty recognising what they are doing right. Decidedly pro-French, she has decided to remain in France. Not without merit because her partner doesn’t want to leave Italy.
Review in France's most popular newspaper.

La Croix

La Croix
12 April 2007

Emma Vandore, a Scottish journalist based in Paris for three years and author of the book French Schizophrenia, laughs as she recounts a story. A friend from London had gone to look for his parents at the Gare du Nord train station the day violent fighting broke out. Seeing the brawling the lobby, they decided to wait for things to settle down over a cup of tea. "This is British sang-froid, says the journalist, in stark contrast to that of the candidates who rushed to the scene to express their emotion."

RTL

Main guest on 18h slot

Le Parisien

Le Parisien
1 April 2007

“The candidates get exited for nothing.”
Emma Vandore
Scottish journalist for Bloomberg.
“The images of the incidents at the Gare du Nord reminded me of the much stronger images of the suburban riots in November 2005. But this time it was in the heart of Paris, in a central place frequented by foreigners. The police probably reacted more violently than they admitted. In any case, there is clearly a bad feeling between the forces of order and the populations of these areas which feel persecuted. As a British journalist, I was struck by the lack of serenity of the politicians. They felt obliged to react very quickly and its as if all of a sudden security has again become one of the major themes of the campaign. The candidates are getting excited over nothing. One moment, they are getting excited about national identity. The next it’s the flag. Before it was Airbus, and then what? There is a sort of permanent zapping. I’m sure that f tomorrow a French company was to become victim of a foreign takeover or if production were to shift abroad, everyone would get stuck in. In the UK, we try to stay calm whatever happens, as was the case during the Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks in London in July 2005. The favourite of the British? I’d say Segolene Royal. People think she’d make a good contrast to Angela Merkel in Europe and she’d be a good replacement for Jacques Chirac.”
Interviewed for La Parisien, France's most popular national newspaper

Paris Match

Here is a book that all the presidential candidates should read. For when a Scottish political journalist decides to decipher our political customs, there are lessons to be learned. In “Schizophrenie francaise, Sego, Sarko, Jacques et moi” (Jean-Claude Gawsewitch), Emma Vandore, a Bloomberg journalist, recounts three years in the corridors of French power surrounded by politicians’ secrets and their way of life. “You wouldn’t fancy becoming my mistress,” proposes a Socialist grandee one evening in La Rochelle. She also covers the different Franco-British ideologies, the habits of the Elysee Court, her frustrations with bureaucracy, transport strikes, student demos against the CPE (youth work contract), Zizou’s moment of madness at the World Cup final, the strange love habits of the French…. 'Find them a good boss and they will throw their cherished antidepressants out of the window,' she recommends.

BFM Radio

BFM radio discussion on 'France, can it really change?' with Time Magazine's James Graff, Der Standard's Stefan Ba=raendle and Jacqueline Henard.

Rhino's blog

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France Soir

France Soir
29 March 2007

Emma Vandore, an Anglo-Saxon journalist, in a newly published book Schizophrenie Francaise, Sego, Sarko Jacques et moi, has an ironic take on politics: we learn that Jacques Chirac told her one day in the Salle des Fetes of the Elysee how he visited Scotland at 18 as a hitch-hiker, or how in London she debated with Dominique de Villepin and Tony Blair the merits of British food.

France 24

Interviewed in French and English.