Author Jon Ronson is best known for writing books including The Psychopath Test and Them: Adventures with Extremists.
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Ronson → know → Extremists
Here, the 59-year-old talks about the women who have influenced his life, including a peripatetic aunt, his wife, Elaine, and Monica Lewinsky, with whom he shared a professional connection.
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he → talk → connection
I grew up in a boring suburban house in Cardiff, Wales.
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I → grow → Cardiff
My father, David, managed a warehouse.
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father → manage → warehouse
When I was 19 and had moved to London, my parents bought a hotel.
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parents → move → hotel
At the age of 19 she and her friend from London went off on a seven-year odyssey.
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she → go → odyssey
When she returned, she wrote a book and became a Magnum [photographic agency] photographer.
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she → return → book
I found photographs of the Rolling Stones in my grandfather’s London kitchen for her series, Rock Stars In The Kitchen.
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I → find → Kitchen
When I was four, Auntie Mavis took a special liking to me.
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Mavis → take → me
She was like, “He’s the one who’s going to have an amazing life.”
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who → ’ → life
She lived in London and sent me cassettes of David Bowie; she was the coolest.
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she → live → Bowie
Auntie Mavis died of cancer when I was 10.
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I → die → cancer
I remember her taking my older brother, Daniel, and me fossil hunting on the beaches in Penarth, near Cardiff.
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her → remember → Cardiff
When I was a feckless 16-year-old, she got me to volunteer at my local radio station.
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me → get → station
It got me a place in media studies at the Polytechnic of Central London, which set me on my way.
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which → get → way
That was the best thing she did for me.
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she → do → me
Growing up, I was awkward in my own skin and a misfit.
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I → grow → skin
I would go to Jewish summer and winter camps where I’d meet really cool girls.
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I → go → girls
The camp wasn’t weird or religious, more listening to Simon & Garfunkel and learning how to smoke.
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camp → listen → Simon
It was probably where I had my first kiss.
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I → have → kiss
Our marriage works because we are not controlling of each other.
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we → work → other
We let the other do whatever they want.
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they → let → whatever
But we also watch TV together every night.
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we → watch → TV
While I was at college I had an incredible one-night stand with Clare.
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I → have → Clare
She looked like [the actress] Nastassja Kinski.
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She → look → actress
I thought she was amazing.
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she → think → ?
We are still in touch and have a friendship that has endured for life.
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that → have → life
He was a very elegant man who was married to the journalist Lynn Barber – she wrote An Education, which was made into a movie.
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which → write → movie
After David died in 2003, I got to know Lynn.
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I → die → Lynn
From her, I learnt how to ask impudent interview questions in ways that didn’t offend.
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that → learn → ways
I met my wife, Elaine, while working for Time Out magazine – she was one of the editors and I was a columnist.
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I → meet → editors
We hit it off.
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We → hit → it
She had a beautiful flat and was very glamorous and impressive.
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She → have → flat
We got married in the late 1990s on a whim.
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We → marry → whim
We were on a safari in Africa for a month and were staying in a Victoria Falls hotel, which is now in disrepair.
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which → stay → disrepair
But rules prevented us from marrying in Zimbabwe, so we went to Nantucket, in Massachusetts, and married there.
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we → prevent → Massachusetts
I never think about the way things look.
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things → think → way
She did a brilliant job of doing up our barn in upstate New York.
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She → do → York
Our marriage works because we are not controlling of each other.
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we → work → other
We let the other do whatever they want.
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they → let → whatever
…and 10 more, not listed.
The Aporia
