Philip Short (born 17 April 1945) is a British journalist and author. He was born in

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

. He studied at

Queens' College, Cambridge Queens' College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the 16 "old colleges" of the university, and was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. Its buildings span the R ...

. After graduation, he spent from 1967 to 1973 as a freelance journalist, first in

Malawi Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south, and southwest. Malawi spans over and ...

, then in

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

. He then joined the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

as a foreign correspondent. He worked there for 25 years. He is the author of several books, among them the biographies of

Hastings Banda Hastings Kamuzu Banda ( – 25 November 1997) was a Malawian politician and statesman who served as the leader of Malawi from 1964 to 1994. He served as Prime Minister of Malawi, Prime Minister from independence in 1964 to 1966, when Malawi was ...

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...

Pol Pot Pol Pot (born Saloth Sâr; 19 May 1925 – 15 April 1998) was a Cambodian politician, revolutionary, and dictator who ruled the communist state of Democratic Kampuchea from 1976 until Cambodian–Vietnamese War, his overthrow in 1979. During ...

François Mitterrand François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was a French politician and statesman who served as President of France from 1981 to 1995, the longest holder of that position in the history of France. As a former First ...

, and

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

. He presented a TV documentary on Mao Zedong entitled ''Mao's Bloody Revolution Revealed'' on the UK terrestrial station

Five 5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number. Humans, and many other animals, have 5 digits on their limbs. Mathematics 5 is a Fermat pri ...

in May 2007.

Bibliography

* ''Banda'' (1974). * ''The Dragon and the Bear: Inside China and Russia Today'' (1982). * ''Mao: A Life'' (1999). Published as ''Mao: The Man Who Made China'' in New Edition (2017). * ''Pol Pot: History of a Nightmare'' (2005). Published in the U.S. as ''Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare'' (2006). * ''Mitterrand: A Study in Ambiguity'' (2013). Published in the U.S. as ''A Taste for Intrigue: The Multiple Lives of François Mitterrand'' (2014). * ''Putin: His Life and Times'' Published in the U.S. as ''Putin'' (2022).

References

External links

Interview
about Pol Pot
Video of Short meeting Chinese refugees returning from Vietnam
BBC News video report from August 1978 *
''Booknotes'' interview with Short on ''Mao: A Life'', 2 April 2000.
British male journalists BBC newsreaders and journalists 1945 births Living people 20th-century British biographers 21st-century British biographers 20th-century British male writers Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge British male biographers {{UK-journalist-stub