大象传媒

Further tips

• Try to keep the interview no longer than an hour.
• Prepare lots of questions, but highlight four or five that you definitely want to ask.
• Most of your questions are there as a guideline - don鈥檛 feel that you have to stick to them.
• Respond to what your interviewee is saying and try not to interrupt or correct them.
• Show enthusiasm.
• Thank the person at the end of the interview.

Questions

Organise your questions well in advance. A good structure for the interview is to ask factual and descriptive questions, followed by feeling and opinion questions.

Factual

questions help to warm your interviewee to the subject. Try to keep this section as brief as possible. For example:

• Where did you spend the most time during the war?
• What job did you do?
• How old were you when the war started?

Move on to questions that will give you more descriptive answers. If your interviewee gives a one word answer, then encourage them to give more detail by asking questions that start with words like 'why,' 'how,' 'where,' 'what kind of'.

To get vivid descriptions from your interviewee, use the five senses in your questions:

• 'What did powdered egg taste like?'
• 'Was it noisy inside a Spitfire?'
• 'How did it feel to wear a gas mask?'
• 'What did an Anderson shelter smell like?'
• 'What did Utility clothing look like?'

When talking about

feelings

it鈥檚 worth remembering that for some people talking about the war may be very emotional. Be prepared for this and try to be sensitive.

• 'What鈥檚 your strongest memory of the war?'
• 'When did you feel most afraid?'
• 'Do you remember a time that you laughed?'
• 'What was your most exciting / terrifying / amusing moment in the war?'
• 'How did you feel when Victory in Europe was announced?'

Finally you may want to find out opinions.

'At the time, how did you feel about the Germans?' (This is a very different question to, 'What do you think of the Germans?')

Try to ask open questions that help the interviewee to give any range of answers. 'What did you think of rationing?' is much more open than 'Did you think rationing was awful?'

You might like to be a little controversial:

• 'What annoyed you most about what the government did during the war?'
• 'Who do you think had a harder time during the war, women or men?'

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