Our columnist Ruth Wishart descibres the experience of going toe-to-toe with Jeremy Paxman at the Edinburgh International Book Festival...

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Well, somebody was kind enough to say it was a score draw, and when you are facing the mighty Jeremy Paxman in front of his sell-out crowd in the main marquee at the Edinburgh Book Festival, that has to count as a bit of a result.

I did say when we met beforehand that it would ill behove a well brought up chap such as himself to treat a woman of a certain age with anything less than comprehensive kindness.

He doesn’t do kind, of course. But we were all treated to the full gamut of quizzically raised eyebrows, disbelieving grimaces, and lofty dismissal of “inappropriate questions”.

Jeremy is really very good at being Jeremy.

Less well known than his legendary gigs on Newsnight, and his anchoring of University Challenge, is the fact that he spent a not inconsiderable part of his reporting career in a number of war zones - a career choice which latterly came to haunt him.

He confesses to waking up after serial bad dreams about men with guns, having sufficient warning of imminent breakdown to realise that a life of war reporting was not going to be for him.

But of course, the audience was mostly interested in his jousts as the grand inquisitor, causing some of the most senior political figures in the land to spend time in the Newsnight green room examining the power of prayer.

When he’s in that groove, and in that mood, nobody gets shown mercy.

We talked about one hapless guest, Chloe Smith, a Treasury minister on a very low rung, who had been dispatched to defend some arcane change in the tax law about which, it quickly became clear, she knew nothing at all.

The resultant car crash did not faze our host one bit (though doubtless Chloe spent some days in a darkened room thereafter). He cheerfully described the pleasure of being part of a “terrific piece of theatre”.

And, of the Treasury gurus who sent Ms Smith to her fate, he matter-of-factly observed: “Well, why ruin your evening when you can send a minion along to be mauled instead?"

The more I think about it, the more grateful I am to have emerged relatively unscathed myself.

He is, however, quite capable of self deprecation. When the offer of the University Challenge job came along he pondered it, but suggested to the producer that if they were bringing back the format they should also bring back the original host, Bamber Gascoigne.

The producer demurred. The zeitgeist had changed, he suggested. Jeremy was the man now in tune with the times. He said 'no', nevertheless.

Then, a few weeks later, he ran into Gascoigne in the British Library and told him the show was coming back. Why didn’t he get in touch with the company making it, said JP.

“Oh, they’ve been in touch some time ago,” said Bamber. “I told them I wasn’t interested.”

So much for the zeitgeist, observed a chastened Paxman, who swiftly called the producer back and signed up.