A European Journey 80 years after D-Day
AS I LEFT my house in London that morning, I passed the door of another: a house where once I heard the stories of an old soldier. He came to live in my street for what became the last years of his life. Victor Syborn was part of the...
ASSIGNMENT MOSCOW: NEW COVER DESIGN FOR NEW EDITION
THE NEW EDITION of my most recent book, Assignment Moscow: Reporting on Russia from Lenin to Putin will be published in May next year. It is updated with new material on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. That new material includes interviews with some of the journalists who felt forced...
Chronicles Of A Collapse: Journalism And The End Of Soviet History
This post is an article originally published on The Conversation, as, ‘Writing history: 30 years on, a former Moscow correspondent reflects on the end of the USSR’. It includes reflections on the relationship between journalism and history, and explains why–in the Journalism department where I teach–we are launching a new...
May 2021: elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
I am delighted to announce that I have been elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, in recognition of my ‘contribution to the discipline of History’. I am extremely grateful that my work has been honoured in this way. As a journalist reporting on international affairs, I was...
Why Russians Are Good At Chess, And Why It Helps To Know That
This is a story first published on Forbes.com in September 2018. In recent weeks, it has once again attracted a lot of traffic there–I suspect because of the popularity of The Queen’s Gambit TV series, so I am reposting it here for any readers who may not have seen...
Assignment Moscow: Upcoming Events
I have two upcoming talks on my new book, Assignment Moscow: Reporting on Russia From Lenin to Putin. Both will be taking place on Zoom. Please book a place and join the discussion! The first is organized by Pushkin House on Tuesday 27th October at 1800 GMT. Details here....