When Anna came on board Vogue it was a good thing for me, because a lot of people who weren't her sort of person were moved out of the office; suddenly it became a meritocracy and there were all sorts of opportunities. She had a vision for the magazine and you could either help her achieve it or you couldn't . . . she had no time for slackers or people who were half-hearted, no matter how talented they were. She liked people who were as committed as she was and she was willing to reward them.

What was her management style?

She was inscrutable. She didn't show emotion . . . not helped by the fact that she wore huge sunglasses all the time. She was incisive. She knew exactly what she wanted and she left you in no doubt. So she was an editor who had great clarity and who gave great direction. She taught me that that was the one big factor in having a successful magazine . . . having somebody who can lead it.

Did she nurture your talents?

She wasn't a mentoring person from that point of view. She led by example. She wasn't a teacher.

There was no patronage, but you knew if you were doing things right because if you weren't doing things right you really felt it.

But she influenced me hugely. She demonstrated that Vogue was about serious journalism and not just glamour and fashion. She is a very intelligent person who was very widely read and was very interested in art and culture.

And I suppose that was very interesting to me, because up to then people usually thought of women's magazines as being one dimensional.

What did you think of The Devil Wears Prada?

I thought the movie could have been far more extreme about her! I thought it was tame, actually.

Working for her was an initiation rite. You felt that if you survived and thrived you'd somehow passed.

All my friends who worked there never had to do another job interview. After you worked with her and survived, if you wanted another job you could just get one. If you survived that you could survive anything.