'It's not what you know, it's who you know.'

As a journalism student I have sometimes found it difficult to do any 'actual journalism' in assignments because nobody wants to talk to students.

There are two reasons for this, the first is that many people feel students are not qualified enough and are a waste of time.

The other is that people tend to look to what they might get out of an interview, and with a student, it's not likely to be published anywhere.

However, using contacts, I have recently discovered, it's not as hard as it looks. If you persist, and ask the right people, anything can be achieved.

It all comes down to the 'six degrees of separation' theory which suggests that everyone in the world is connected through six stages, yourself being the first stage, and anyone you know being the second.

Using this theory I have managed to get an interview with Chris Moncrieff, and through him, in the next week I will be interviewing Sir Bernard Ingham, and Lords Norman Tebbit and Ian Paisley - quite a scary prospect, especially the latter.

At least two of these people once had or still has a very strong and close relationship with Margaret Thatcher. (Bernard Ingham was her Chief Press Secretary and Chris Moncrieff travelled with her around the world as a political journalist.)

 Maybe Mrs. Thatcher herself could be my next interviewee?

In a business where they say "it's not what you know, it's who you know", using the six degrees of separation, there should, in theory, be no problem for anyone who wants to find a story worth sharing.