Martin Sixsmith

Martin Sixsmith is a bestselling author, television and radio presenter and journalist.

He began working at the BBC in 1980 as a foreign correspondent, reporting from Moscow during the end of the Cold War, the era of Perestroika, an the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In 1997, he went to work for the government of Tony Blair as Director of Communications and Press Secretary to Harriet Harman and then to Alistair Darling. He then served as Director of Communication at the Department for Transport, Local Government, and the Regions.

Sixsmith is the author of two political novels, Spin and I Heard Lenin Laugh. He has also published an account of the Litvinenko murder, The Litvinenko File, and made a documentary film in 2008 exploring the legacy of the KGB in today's Russia and the FSB.

His book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee was turned into a hugely successful film in 2013, starring Judi Dench.