Why ambition shouldn’t be just be a men-only preserve

Every week Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark makes the 900 mile train journey from her home in Glasgow to London.

It would have been easier had she made a home in the capital, but Wark is fiercely proud of her Scottish roots and any inconvenience is more than outweighed by the benefits it brings to her family life.

“I’ve spent God knows how long commuting,” says the 59-year-old who has two grown-up children with televsion producer Alan Clements. “I had a wonderful back-up team. I had a nanny who is a family friend and basically, I had the freedom not to be at work every day.

“I’ve been in an incredibly privileged position. It wasn’t as if I was leaving on Monday morning and coming back on Friday night. I would go down for a couple of days a week and then I’d be working in Glasgow. I still do. I also made a very strong decision that when the children were growing up, I would never take a weekend job.”

The 59-year-old is one of a rare breed of journalist who can interrogate a government minister, then move seamlessly onto analyising a new play or film - by way of evidence, last week she juggled the crisis in Ukraine with interviewing Debbie Harry.

“I’ve always been a person who believes that you should be able to mix and match politics, news and the arts,” she says. Working in television news has always been demanded, particularly when your programme goes out late into the evening, but at no stage did she consider ditching her career for full-time motherhood.

“There’s no doubt I felt guilty [about leaving the children]. I was always selfish enough to know that I wanted a career, but then I hope I poured everything back in at home. On the other hand, I wanted to be a role model for my kids as well, to show that you can work and you can raise a family.”

Wark, whose debut novel The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle, has been in broadcasting for more than 35 years, yet doesn’t think it was any more difficult for women to rise up the ranks in TV in her early days than it is now.

“I rode on the crest of a wave as I joined the BBC when they needed more women,” she recalls. “They realised that they hadn’t nearly enough women. Weirdly - and I’m not going to say that there isn’t sexism in television - I didn’t have that problem. I’d like to hope that I got where I am because I’m half way decent at my job, as opposed to a gender thing.

“There are lots of challenges now [for women in TV]. There are lots of incredibly good broadcasters and I would say you need experience but you also need fresh talent. There are opportunities for women. Women are being ess overlooked than perhaps they once were. Women are able to punch their weight now.”

Wark made her reputation challenging Margaret Thatcher in 1990 about the poll tax. The then Prime Minister had not wanted to face a woman, but the BBC insisted. It was one of those defining moments of an interviewer’s career and she sees no reason why there shouldn’t be more to come. “If you try to keep to the top of your game, and if you are still doing good work, then age shouldn’t be a barrier. It’s not a barrier for men. Dimbleby’s in his 70s,” she has said.

Wark is currently writing her next novel, set in Scotland and New York, which again has family relationships at its heart. She says she’s still hugely ambitious, although she questions how that is perceived.

“Ambition is often seen as a great thing in men and a bad thing in women. I want to continue to do good work in television and radio and I really want to write another book,” she says. “Let’s hope I don’t have to give up one for the other.”

The Legacy Of Elizabeth Pringle by Kirsty Wark is published by Two Roads on March 13, priced £14.99.