Europe Editor of the Sunday Times, journalist and author
Peter Conradi has worked in national and international journalism for more than three decades. As the Paris-‐based Europe Editor and former Foreign Editor of The Sunday Times, he can speak authoritatively on many aspects of international affairs.
In his present role, he covers the big stories in France, Germany, Italy and beyond, trying to make sense of events across the continent. He can go from covering a protest by ‘yellow vest’ protesters in a French provincial town or a political rally in Italy one day to mingling with the great and good at the World Economic Forum in Davos the next. It helps that he speaks fluent French, German and Italian. He is working on a book on the history of Germany from the end of the Second World War to the present day, due out in late 2020.
Another area of specialism is Russia, where he was based from 1988 to 1995, during which time he experienced at first hand the end of Communism and the break-‐up of the Soviet Union. These experiences informed a previous book, Who Lost Russia? How the World Entered a New Cold War, published in 2016, which was critically well received on both sides of the Atlantic. The New York Times called it ‘a smart, balanced analysis of the internal developments that have shaped Russia’s course since the break-‐up of the Soviet Union’. A Russian speaker, he continues to follow events in Russia and the broader region.
Peter’s other books include the international best seller, The King’s Speech, How One Man Saved the British Monarchy, written jointly with Mark Logue, grandson of George VI’s speech therapist, Lionel Logue, which told the true story of the events that inspired the multi-‐Oscar-‐winning film. The book was a great commercial success, occupying the number one slot on the UK best-‐seller list and making it into the top 10 in America. A sequel, The King’s War, that came out in Autumn 2018, took the story on, exploring the role Lionel Logue played in helping the King through Britain’s darkest hour.
A graduate of Brasenose College, University of Oxford and Ludwig-‐Maximilian University, Munich, Peter held a number of positions at Reuters and then at The European and The Sunday Times.
Although the main emphasis of his career has been on international news, he has had stints editing the Sunday Times’s Money section and its Home supplement, giving him a knowledge of property and of the financial markets. His academic background in economics adds to this, and he is able to handle complex subjects in a comprehensible and also entertaining manner. He is a regular pundit on the BBC and Sky.