Taylor Downing is a historian, writer and broadcaster. He has written several best selling books and has produced more than 200 television documentaries many of which have won Awards.
STOP
PRESS:
To mark the publication of Taylor's new book 1942 - Britain at the Brink, Dan Snow has interviewed Taylor for his immensely popular History Hit podcast. See:
https://play.acast.com/s/dansnowshistoryhit/1942-churchillsrealdarkesthour
Taylor's new book 1942 - Britain At The Brink was published in January 2022. It was reviewed by Max Hastings in The Sunday Times and was serialised in the Mail on Sunday. See
Taylor appeard in Radio 4's Past Forward series in January to mark the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the BBC. See
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0013255
Taylor appeared in a series of tv documentaries to mark the 80th anniversary of Pearl Harbour called Attack on Pearl Harbor: Minute by Minute. The series was shown on Channel 5 in the UK and on National Geographic and Netflix in the US. Taylor appeared in every episode and was the only British historian in the series. See
https://www.channel5.com/show/attack-on-pearl-harbour-minute-by-minute
Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook's The Rest Is History podcast includes an episode recorded with Taylor about his book 1983: The World At the Brink. Tom and Dominic are effusive about the book and Taylor talks of nuclear scares across the Cold War as well as events in 1983. See: https://play.acast.com/s/the-rest-is-history-podcast/85.nuclearweapons
Taylor has contributed to
several podacsts and given many on-line lectures during Lockdown
including for the popular We Have
Ways of Making You Talk podcast with historian
James Holland and comedian Al Murray:
https://play.acast.com/s/wehaveways/222.photoreconnaissance
And for the first podcast of the At the Brink series produced by the William Perry Project in the US:
https://atthebrink.org/podcast/seek-immediate-shelter-nuclear-false-alarms/
Taylor's previous book, written
with Maya Lasker-Wallfisch, follows the impact of the Holocaust
over three generations of a German-Jewish family and deals with the
challenges of trans-generational trauma.
Entitled Letter
to Breslau it has been published in Germany by
Suhrkamp Insel as Briefe nach
Breslau where it has been a best
seller.
Taylor provided media commentary
on the 75th anniversary of D-Day for CNN
International across the commemorations in June
2019.
Taylor's book 1983 - The World at the Brink has now been published in Russian. It was shortlisted for a highly prestigious book prize, the Pushkin Prize. See
http://www.pushkinhouse.org/2019-shortlist
Taylor's book on the little known
Cold War scare entitled
1983 - The
World at the Brink
was published in April 2018 and
came ut in paperback later in the year.
The book has generated immense interest and some great reviews. Historian Tom Holland has tweeted about 'Taylor Downing's gripping and frankly terrifying book on the US-Soviet nuclear confrontation.'
Dominic Sandbrook in The
Sunday Times wrote 'Downing has written a carefully
researched and hugely readable acount...Like the plot of some
blockbuster by Frederick Forsyth, Downing's book piles up events
with frightening speed.'
The book which has been
serialised in the Daily Mail who described it as
'rivetting' is being called 'a real-life thriller'.
Click on: 1983
Taylor's previous media appearances, of which there have been many, include:
Taylor interviewed for Centenary News:
Taylor interviewed on CNN International once again by Christiane Amanpour to discuss the 70th anniversary of VE Day:
In 2015 Taylor was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Fellows are elected because of their 'original contribution to historical scholarship'. Taylor said he was 'flattered and delighted' to become a Fellow of the RHS:
The World at War is now available: The landmark documentary series The World at War remains the most influential and renowned history programme ever produced by British television. Taylor Downing's book traces how the series came about and looks at it in the context of the development of History programming on Television in Britain.
Spies in the
Sky was short listed for the prestigious Royal United
Services/Duke of Westminster Award for Military Literature. The
award was won by All Hell Let Lose by Max Hastings. Taylor
was delighted to be short listed with such a distinguished group of
historians that also included Gary Sheffield, John Gaddis and David
Stevenson.
Video links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5xpQ3oBhNI
Other video links on the Television
page
© 2013 Taylor Downing