Hi folks! Many people have asked me what I am doing in the press, and I thought that was a good question - I wanted to ask too. So I went ahead and asked, and this is what I got! Well, being a writer let me tell you the story behind the story - Angus (agkennedy@kennedys.co.uk)
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>> Bloomberg Interview 15th February 2011 ©Bloomberg
My story behind the story: Bloomberg spoke to me (briefly) as part of their coverage of the Ivory Coast cocoa crisis.
One story always leads to another. I was in London and Bloomberg called me on my mobile and asked if I was available and immediately sent for a blacked out window car to pick me up for an interview. Felt like James Bond! They only shot one line of this interview but they ran it all morning... was a great story about cocoa prices and the problems on the Ivory Coast so definitely worth watching! Bloomberg has to be one of the most exciting office buildings I have ever been in!
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>> BBC South East Today Interview - 14th February 2011 ©BBC
My story behind the story: I was interviewed by Robin Gibson for BBC's South East Today
I wrote a direct letter to Robin Gibson, the presenter for BBC South East News, in some ways, he has become a personal friend. He also likes chocolate! .... so I must say we gelled together straight away. The best times are the little chats off air, brilliant! This was a take on valentines day. I did a call round for products for sex and or not depending... and luckily Bloomsberry and Spencer and Fleetwood came to the rescue. I tried to call some companies to say I was going to be on telly and I needed loads of products but they didnt believe me! So I had to ruch around Asda! Bloomsberrya andSpenser did and thats why their products are in this news clip that went out to millions at 1.30pm and 6.30 pm on valentines day. So please send Kenendy's your samples finished products to me direct - No! we dont just eat them. I tend to give them to reporters as well. I have a soft spot for journalists and they have a softspot for chocolate. It does make for a somewhat winning combination! As I said if every polititian was armed with a box of chocolates they could rule the country with ease. Chocolate is more magical than you think it is.
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>> BBC Radio Jersey - 12th February 2011 - Part 1 BBC © MMX
>> BBC Radio Jersey - 12th February 2011 - Part 2 BBC © MMX
My story behind the story: I spoke to BBC Radio Jersey about Valentines day chocolate
What can I say, 15 minutes on radio Jersey national radio. Hamish Marett-Crosby is a great writer and broadcaster and knows so much its frightening! He mamkes a great interviewer too and the rusult is in this one. Interesting, you do sound different depending what environment you are in. I was on my own for this one and on a land line from my dining room. We recorded in time for valentines day and this was so funny. Not my bit that was boring but listen to the public talking about chocolate and sex. Excellent, I love these journalists, they are so clever in how they bring in the interest of their audience and this is a perfectly sculptured example.
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>> Talk Radio Europe Interview 16th November 2010 © talkradioeurope.com
My story behind the story: Well, dearest readers, never forget a journalist, especially one who does good things. Kennedy's finally had her chance to donate to charity and help this wonderful DJ, Steve Gilmore, raise money for a cancer hospice in Spain. If you give with your heart and write with your heart, people listen with their heart. We challenged Steve to eat a chocolate scorpion live on air to raise charity money. It was a crazy idea but sometimes say things without thinking and the world is yours. Kennedy's are donating Euro 200 to this station for Steve's scorpion challenge. No man is a man unless he gives from the heart. We are also donating a lot of products that manufacturers have sent to us onto his radio station for auction to raise more money for the good cause. Thank you Steve, you are a great man and what an interview we had!
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>> Daily Mail feature - 16th November 2010 © Associated Newspapers Ltd
My story behind the story: I spent the whole day with the Daily Mail. We never really thought that we were actually going to work that day, and still it feels like a dream. I don't know what came over me that day. I just took off and went into overdrive and talked and talked and talked. I decided that this, I knew, was a major and possibly and my only chance to express who it is that I really am. Never expect anything in life; a full page story in the Daily Mail was something I said I would believe when I saw it! Take each interview with the press as if it were your last. Their journalist, Amy Oliver was, like all other journalists I have met, brilliantly intelligent and curiously seductive. I say that in the way she found out about my 'real story'. Edge the cork, edge the cork and pop, there's the story. But never did I feel I was being questioned. She loved her job and for a most brilliant day in my life, I loved what I was doing. I never thought the day would come that a journalist from one of the most powerful newspapers in the world would be asking about my life. After this went out as a full page (an early right hander) odd things stated happening. Do you know, people started to congratulate me as if I had climbed a mountain or written a book? I had emails from old friends and helped elderly people source turkish delights that were sitting at home. But it was Amy who did this! Today I still have that story and it's all over the world, from India to Skegness and online. Do I eat that much chocolate? Why am I not fat? Why do we take an interest in the lives of others anyway? What is it that I have to do for people to finally receive the wisdom of the world? Do you know, it's most exciting to see that you can be yourself after so long. Thank you Amy. It takes even greater people to make us great!
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>> BBC Radio Kent - 15th October 2010 BBC © MMX
My story behind the story: It helps hugely that I am also a journalist (OK, self-trained anyway, oh and I can't spell either!). You have to understand that the story they want isn't always the same as what you want to give. OK, look, I admit fully that am no expert, but I have gone from nowhere to being on the national news on telly and in all the top newspapers in the country. I am a normal guy with a small business and a brilliantly normal and perhaps under overexciting job. But I do understand that on one of the seven pillars of spiritual strength is understanding. When you combine that with a few other things like, well the other 6, then you begin to see that the world is indeed your oyster. The other 6 are in my next book.
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>> Kent Messenger - 12th October 2010 © KM Group 2010
My story behind the story: Local papers... hey, don't ever think no one reads them. After this went out, I was on national television the same day! (Still waiting for the HP3). I have seen people being taken apart, cell by cell by journalists. You have to see that what they do is always in the interest of their readership. If they are attacking someone, there is always a reason for it. I am so glad that am not a footballer. Chocolate indeed is a seductive subject. OK, I have not been seducing journalists!! But it sure as hell helps when you have some chocolate in your pocket! Did you know that Casanova ate chocolates before his escapades?!
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>> The Sun - 28th September 2010 © News Group Newspapers Ltd.
My story behind the story: The Sun is in tune with the British consumer, and no one does it better than Jane Hamilton, and no, I am not just saying that to get quoted again. Jane is far too clever to fall for that. I have no need, I have nothing to sell to their three million readers. The point is that if you have something to say, it's how you deliver it that counts. We can all make the same sentence dull or interesting by being more or less of a version of who we are. You have to focus on what they want to say, and decide if you can be part of that delivery.
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>> The Sun - 9th April 2010 © News Group Newspapers Ltd.
My story behind the story: We have now been quoted by The Sun on many occasions. I asked to write a column! Of course they refused, but never underestimate how much you do know about something. You know more about your life than anyone else! The more I talk to the press, the more I realize that chocolate carries more influence than politics. I am so glad I am not a politician, no one would listen to a single word I said! Thank you God for not making me a lousy two faced politician.
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>> The Sun - 18th February 2010 © News Group Newspapers Ltd.
My story behind the story: Soon after being in The Sunday Times I was then invited by The Sun newspaper for a chat. I loved the team down there and now have huge respect for the their wry style and understand the difficultly that they have in presenting a story in the way that they do. It's a real art. An easy read is the hardest to write, and that is what people miss when they read this newspaper; it's much harder than it looks! We hit it off straight away. It's other people who make us into who we are in life. We might think we can do it alone but we can't! We become what others enable us to be. We have a break, and we keep getting them until the nut cracks. But it won't crack unless you show complete respect and understanding for a readership. |
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My story behind the story: OK, it all started here back in February this year. You need a break in life and no matter what anyone says, no one who has ever made it (and I haven't, by the way) cannot say deny something unusual happened, or their chance came along. My philosophy is always to take people at face value, always expect a good thing and to be a good person before you make a pre-conceived idea about who is in front of you. I found a studenty-looking type bloke sitting on my stand in Cologne. He was very pleasant enough. Without knowing who he was, I offered him glass of champagne and a comfy seat, he looked a bit tired at the end of the day. Always be good to all the people you meet before you decide who they are. We got talking, and after a while he then announced in the most comforting and matter-of-fact way he was from the Sunday Times; I then, quite naturally, offered him another glass.
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