Part 4 · Interview

Narrator: You will hear an interview with a man called Marcus Bell, who designs board games. For questions 1 to 7, choose the best answer, A, B or C.

Interviewer: My guest today is Marcus Bell, who designs board games for a living. Marcus, how did you get started?

Marcus: Well, I've always loved games. My family played them every Sunday when I was a kid. But I never imagined it could be a job. I was working as a software tester, and in my spare time I made a game for my nephew's birthday, just using cardboard and felt pens. His friends loved it so much that their parents started asking where they could buy it. That's when I thought, maybe there's something here.

Interviewer: And how did you turn that into a career?

Marcus: Slowly! I spent about two years improving that first game, testing it with anyone who'd sit still long enough. Then I raised money online to pay for the first thousand copies. Honestly, the money wasn't the hard part. People were very generous. What I found really tough was the business side, dealing with factories, shipping, taxes. None of that came naturally to me.

Interviewer: Where do your ideas come from?

Marcus: People expect me to say other games, but actually I try not to play too many new ones while I'm designing, because I don't want to copy something without realising it. Most of my ideas come from everyday situations. My latest game started when I was stuck in a traffic jam and began wondering how you'd design a city where that never happened.

Interviewer: What makes a good game, in your opinion?

Marcus: A lot of designers focus on the rules, making them clever and complicated. For me, the key thing is what happens between the players. The best games are the ones where people are laughing, arguing, making deals. If everyone's just staring silently at the board, something's gone wrong, however clever the rules are.

Interviewer: How important is testing?

Marcus: It's everything. I'd say I throw away about ninety per cent of my ideas after the first test, and I don't mind that at all. The hardest thing is watching people play without saying anything. Your instinct is to jump in and explain, but if players need you to explain, the game isn't clear enough. So I sit on my hands and take notes.

Interviewer: Board games have become much more popular in recent years. Why do you think that is?

Marcus: I think people spend so much time on screens that they're hungry for something they can do together, face to face. Board game cafés have opened in lots of towns, which has helped too. Some people say it's just a trend that'll pass, but I'm not so sure. People have been playing games around a table for thousands of years.

Interviewer: And what's next for you?

Marcus: I'm working on a game for families with very young children, which is a completely new challenge. Kids of four or five can't read, so every rule has to be explained through pictures. And they're brutally honest testers. If they're bored, they just get up and walk away!

Narrator: You will hear an interview with a woman called Nadia Kerr, who works as a tree surgeon. For questions 1 to 7, choose the best answer, A, B or C.

Interviewer: My guest today is Nadia Kerr, who works as a tree surgeon. That's someone who climbs, cuts back and sometimes removes trees. Nadia, it's not a job many people think about. How did you get into it?

Nadia: Completely by accident, really. I'd studied history at university, and I was working in an office, which I didn't hate, but I didn't love either. Then one weekend I volunteered to help clear an overgrown wood near where I lived, and one of the people running the day was a tree surgeon. I watched him climb a huge oak with just ropes and a harness, and I remember thinking, why am I sitting at a desk all week when people get paid to do that?

Interviewer: And was it easy to change career?

Nadia: Easier than I'd feared, in some ways. There are proper training courses, and the qualifications don't take years to get. The hard part was financial. I had to take a big drop in salary while I was training, and for about a year I was living on very little. My parents were worried I'd made a terrible mistake, though they've come round since.

Interviewer: People might imagine the most dangerous part is the height. Is that right?

Nadia: Funnily enough, heights have never bothered me, and with the right equipment you're very secure up there. What you have to respect is the chainsaw. You're often using it while you're hanging from a rope, and one moment of carelessness can be very serious. That's why we always work in pairs and check each other's equipment constantly.

Interviewer: What does a typical day look like?

Nadia: There isn't really such a thing. One day I might be removing a tree that's been damaged in a storm and is about to fall on someone's house. The next, I'm carefully pruning a two-hundred-year-old tree in a park so that it stays healthy. The emergency jobs are exciting, but it's the slower work I find most satisfying. You're helping something that'll still be there long after you've gone.

Interviewer: Do you ever have to cut down trees you'd rather save?

Nadia: All the time, and it's the part of the job I find hardest. Sometimes a tree is perfectly healthy, but the owner wants it gone because it blocks their light or drops leaves on their car. I always try to suggest alternatives, like reducing the size of the tree instead. Occasionally people listen. More often they don't, and then it's their decision, not mine.

Interviewer: You're one of relatively few women in the profession. Has that been an issue?

Nadia: Less than you might think. Clients are sometimes surprised when I turn up, and I've had the odd comment, but the people I work with judge you on whether you can do the job, full stop. If anything, I think more women would be attracted to it if they knew it existed as an option. Nobody ever mentioned it to me at school.

Interviewer: Finally, what advice would you give someone thinking of following in your footsteps?

Nadia: Try it before you commit. Lots of companies take on volunteers, or people for a few days' work experience. Spend a week dragging branches around in the rain and you'll soon find out whether it's for you. I loved it from the first day, but I know plenty of people who didn't.