Martin Sixsmith
Martin Sixsmith is a writer, presenter and former television correspondent. He was the BBC’s Western Europe Correspondent for four years in the 1980s, reporting on the development and enlargement of the European Union. In the 1990s, Martin was the BBC’s correspondent in Warsaw, Moscow and Washington. Between 1997 and 2002 he worked for the British Government as Director of Communications and Press Secretary to several cabinet ministers.He worked as a consultant on the BBC2 political sitcom The Thick of It and the 2010 movie In the Loop. In 2013, his book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee was adapted into the film Philomena, starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan. It was nominated for four Oscars. His book Ayesha’s Gift, the story of a young woman’s search to discover the truth after her father is murdered in Pakistan, is in development as a film.His non-fiction books include Moscow Coup; The Litvinenko File; Putin’s Oil; Russia, A Thousand Year Chronicle of the Wild East and The War of Nerves – Inside the Cold War Mind. In 2011, he presented the BBC’s 50-episode history of Russia on Radio Four. In 2014 he presented Radio Four’s 25-part history of psychology and psychiatry.