Editing Martin Sixsmith

{{Short description|British author and presenter}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2014}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Martin Sixsmith
| image =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth-date and age|24 September 1954}}
| birth_place = [[Warrington]], England
| education = [[Manchester Grammar School|The Manchester Grammar School]]
| alma mater = [[Oxford University]]
| occupation = Writer
| spouse =
| domestic_partner =
| children =
| nationality = British
| credits =
}}
'''Martin Sixsmith''' (born 24 September 1954){{citation needed|date=February 2019}}<ref>{{Cite web|title=Martin Sixsmith|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2baae3fc20|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191222161227/https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2baae3fc20|archive-date=22 December 2019|access-date=2021-01-09|website=[[BFI]]|language=en}}</ref> is a British author and radio/television presenter, primarily working for the [[BBC]]. He has also worked as an adviser to the [[Labour Party UK|Labour]] government and to the BBC television comedy series ''[[The Thick of It]]''.<ref>{{Cite interview|last=Iannucci|first=Armando|last2=Langham|first2=Chris|last3=Capaldi|first3=Peter|date=19 April 2005|title=The Thick of It {{!}} Cast & Crew Interview|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/thickofit/armando-iannucci.shtml|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414071219/http://www.bbc.co.uk:80/bbcfour/thickofit/armando-iannucci.shtml|archive-date=14 April 2012|website=[[BBC]]}}</ref> Sixsmith's book about [[Philomena Lee]], ''The Lost Child of Philomena Lee'', was the basis for the 2013 film ''[[Philomena (film)|Philomena]]'', in which Sixsmith is played by [[Steve Coogan]].

==Education==
{{refimprove-section|date=September 2024}}
Sixsmith was born in [[Warrington]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/474414.Martin_Sixsmith | title=Martin Sixsmith }}</ref> He was educated at [[Manchester Grammar School|The Manchester Grammar School]],<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.mgs.org/4979/old-mancunian-alumni-awards# | title=Old Mancunian Alumni Awards - Manchester Grammar School }}</ref> then at [[New College, Oxford]], [[Harvard University|Harvard]], the [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]] University in Paris, and in [[Saint Petersburg]] – then called Leningrad – in Russia. He studied Russian and French.{{cn|date=September 2024}} He was a Slavics Tutor at Harvard, and wrote his postgraduate thesis about Russian poetry. Between 2002 and 2007 he studied Psychology and Applied Psychology as a mature student at [[Birkbeck, University of London|Birkbeck College, University of London]], and at [[London Metropolitan University]].{{cn|date=September 2024}}

==Career and writings==
Sixsmith joined the [[BBC]] in 1980 as a foreign correspondent, reporting from Moscow during the presidencies of [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] and [[Boris Yeltsin]] and the collapse of the [[Soviet Union]]. He also reported from [[Poland]] during the [[Solidarnosc|Solidarity]] uprising and was the BBC's [[Washington DC|Washington]] correspondent during the election and first presidential term of [[Bill Clinton]]. He was based in Russia for five years, the US for four, Brussels for four and Poland for three.

Sixsmith left the BBC in 1997 to work for the newly elected [[First Blair ministry|government of Tony Blair]]. He became Director of Communications (a civil service post), working first with [[Harriet Harman]] and [[Frank Field (British politician)|Frank Field]], then with [[Alistair Darling]]. His next position was as a Director of [[General Electric Company|GEC plc]], where he oversaw the rebranding of the company as [[Marconi Communications]].

In December 2001, he returned to the Civil Service as Director of Communications for the [[Department for Transport|Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions]], where he became embroiled in a scandal over the actions of [[List of political scandals in the United Kingdom#2000s|Jo Moore]]. Moore was a special adviser to the transport secretary [[Stephen Byers]] who had been the subject of much public condemnation for suggesting that a controversial announcement could be "buried" by being made in the wake of the [[September 11, 2001 attacks]]. Sixsmith incurred the displeasure of [[Tony Blair]] when his email advising Byers and Moore not to bury more bad news was leaked to the press. The government tried to force him to resign, but had later to issue an apology and pay him compensation.<ref>{{Cite report|date=19 July 2002|title=House of Commons - Public Administration - Eighth Report|url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmselect/cmpubadm/303/30305.htm|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030419215855/http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmselect/cmpubadm/303/30302.htm|archive-date=19 April 2003|access-date=9 January 2021|website=[[UK Parliament]]}}</ref>

Sixsmith was widely expected to write a memoir or [[autobiography]] in the wake of his civil service departure. Instead, he produced a novel about near-future politics called ''Spin'' which was published in 2004, and indirectly led to his employment as an adviser on ''The Thick of It''.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Stanford|first=Peter|date=2011-10-23|title=Secrets and lies: Martin Sixsmith on the trail of a boy ripped from|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/secrets-and-lies-martin-sixsmith-on-the-trail-of-a-boy-ripped-from-his-mother-1792574.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090929083036/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/secrets-and-lies-martin-sixsmith-on-the-trail-of-a-boy-ripped-from-his-mother-1792574.html|archive-date=29 September 2009|access-date=28 February 2016|website=[[The Independent]]|language=en}}</ref> His second novel, ''I Heard Lenin Laugh'', was published in 2005.<ref>{{cite news|last=Jeffries|first=Stuart|date=28 June 2006|title=Sixsmith unspun|website=[[The Guardian]]|publisher=[[Guardian News & Media Limited]]|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2006/jun/28/television.books|url-status=live|access-date=31 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140907173413/http://www.theguardian.com/media/2006/jun/28/television.books|archive-date=7 September 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Lewycka|first=Marina|date=8 July 2006|title=Spinning the Soviets|work=[[The Guardian]]|publisher=[[Guardian News & Media Limited]]|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/jul/08/featuresreviews.guardianreview23|url-status=live|access-date=31 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140907173336/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/jul/08/featuresreviews.guardianreview23|archive-date=7 September 2014}}</ref>

In 2006, he was commissioned by [[BBC Radio 4]] to present a series of programmes on [[Russian poetry]], [[Russian literature|literature]] and [[Russian art|art]], ''Challenging the Silence.''

In 2007, Sixsmith wrote ''The Litvinenko File'', an examination of the feud between the Kremlin and Russia's émigré oligarchs.

In 2008 he worked on two BBC documentaries exploring the legacy of the KGB in Russia and also presented a BBC documentary, ''The Snowy Streets of St Petersburg'', about artists and writers who fled the former Eastern bloc.

In 2009, ''The Lost Child of Philomena Lee'' was published,<ref name="sixsmith">{{cite book| title=The Lost Child of Philomena Lee: A Mother, Her Son and a Fifty Year Search| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b6XlX6WM-OMC| first=Martin| last=Sixsmith| publisher=Macmillan| date=August 11, 2011| isbn=978-0-230-74427-1| access-date=August 9, 2014|url-access=subscription }}</ref> about the forcible separation of [[Philomena Lee]] and her son, [[Michael A. Hess]], by the nuns of [[Sean Ross Abbey]], an Irish convent, during the 1950s, and the subsequent attempts of Lee and Hess to contact one another.<ref>{{cite news|last=Sixsmith|first=Martin|date=19 September 2009|title=The Catholic church sold my child|work=[[The Guardian]]|publisher=[[Guardian News & Media Limited]]|location=London|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/sep/19/catholic-church-sold-child|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130802165842/http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/sep/19/catholic-church-sold-child|archive-date=2 August 2013}}</ref>

In 2010, he wrote ''Putin's Oil'', about Russia's energy wars and their consequences for Moscow and the world.

In 2011, Sixsmith presented ''Russia: The Wild East'', a 50-part history of Russia for BBC Radio 4.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Russia: The Wild East - Episode guide|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010v6p3/episodes/guide|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210109122148/https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010v6p3/episodes/guide|archive-date=9 January 2021|access-date=2021-01-09|website=[[BBC]]}}</ref> His book ''Russia, a 1,000-Year Chronicle of the Wild East'' was published by Random House.

He continued to work as an adviser to the BBC political sitcom, ''The Thick of It,'' and the Oscar-nominated film, ''[[In the Loop]].''

In 2013, ''The Lost Child of Philomena Lee'' was adapted into the film ''[[Philomena (film)|Philomena]]'', directed by [[Stephen Frears]], starring [[Judi Dench]] and [[Steve Coogan]] (as Sixsmith), and written by Coogan and [[Jeff Pope]]. It was nominated for four Oscars.

In 2014, Sixsmith presented a 25-part BBC Radio 4 series about the history of [[psychology]] and [[psychiatry]], ''In Search of Ourselves''.

In 2015, he made a BBC television documentary, ''Ireland's Lost Babies'', in which he revisited Philomena's story by travelling to the [[United States]] to investigate the [[Catholic Church in Ireland|Irish Catholic Church's]] role in an adoption trade which saw thousands of children taken from their mothers and sent abroad.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Stacey|first=Pat|date=17 September 2014|title=Ireland's Lost Babies - 'a devastatingly powerful piece of work that will move you to tears one moment and blood-boiling outrage the next'|work=[[Independent.ie]]|url=http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/television/tv-reviews/irelands-lost-babies-a-devastatingly-powerful-piece-of-work-that-will-move-you-to-tears-one-moment-and-bloodboiling-outrage-the-next-30593309.html|url-status=live|access-date=2015-09-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200710223825/https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/television/tv-reviews/irelands-lost-babies-a-devastatingly-powerful-piece-of-work-that-will-move-you-to-tears-one-moment-and-blood-boiling-outrage-the-next-30593309.html|archive-date=10 July 2020}}</ref>

His 2017 book, ''Ayesha's Gift,'' is the story of a young woman's search to discover the truth about her father, who had been murdered in [[Pakistan]].<ref>{{Cite news|last=Sixsmith|first=Martin|date=2017-01-21|title=Martin Sixsmith: 'We were both consumed by a search for the truth'|language=en|website=[[The Guardian]]|publisher=[[Guardian News & Media Limited]]|url=http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/jan/21/martin-sixsmith-ayeshas-gift-father-killers-brother-suicide|access-date=2021-01-09}}</ref>

In 2019, he published ''An Unquiet Heart'', a historical novel based on the life of the Russian poet, [[Sergei Yesenin]], and his stormy love affair with the actress [[Zinaida Raikh]].

His 2021 book, ''The War of Nerves,'' an account of the [[Cold War]] in terms of the psychology of the leaders on both sides, was shortlisted for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Non-fiction.<ref>{{cite news |title=A new psychological history of the cold war |url=https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2021/11/11/a-new-psychological-history-of-the-cold-war |access-date=20 November 2021 |publisher=The Economist |date=13 November 2021}}</ref>

In 2022, Sixsmith co-wrote ''The Russia Conundrum: How the West Fell for Putin's Power Gambit'', with the former oligarch and liberal opposition campaigner, Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Sixsmith's 2024 book, ''Putin and the Return of History'' examines the West's plans for a unipolar world following the collapse of Soviet communism and how this contributed to Vladimir Putin's growing antagonism towards Washington and NATO.

==References==
<references />

==External links==
* {{IMDb name|1939381}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sixsmith, Martin}}
[[Category:1954 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]
[[Category:University of Paris alumni]]
[[Category:British male journalists]]
[[Category:People educated at Manchester Grammar School]]
[[Category:Alumni of New College, Oxford]]
[[Category:21st-century British writers]]
[[Category:BBC newsreaders and journalists]]
[[Category:BBC radio presenters]]
[[Category:Labour Party (UK) officials]]
[[Category:General Electric Company]]
[[Category:Writers from Warrington]]
[[Category:Writers about Russia]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of London]]
[[Category:Alumni of London Metropolitan University]]