Alex von Tunzelmann

Alex von Tunzelmann
Tunzelmann in 2018
Born	1977 (age 48–49) United Kingdom
Occupation	Historian Screenwriter Author Newspaper Columnist Podcaster
Nationality	British
Education	Brighton and Hove High School
Alma mater	University College, Oxford
Genre	Non-fiction
Subject	Cold War British Empire

Alex von Tunzelmann (born 1977) is a British popular historian, author, newspaper columnist, podcaster and screenwriter.

Early life and education

According to Tunzelmann, her family originated in Saxony, migrating to Estonia around 1600 and to New Zealand around 1850. ^[1]

Tunzelmann was educated at Brighton and Hove High School, ^[2] an independent school for girls in Brighton, and at University College, Oxford. She read history and edited both Cherwell and Isis .

Career

Columnist

From 2008 to 2016, Tunzelmann wrote a column for The Guardian entitled "Reel history", in which she discussed and rated popular films for their historical accuracy. ^[3] She has also written for The New York Times , Los Angeles Times , The Washington Post , The Daily Telegraph , Conde Nast Traveller , the BBC News website, the Financial Times and The Daily Beast .^{[ citation needed ]}

Author

Tunzelmann has written five non fiction popular history books ^[4]

• Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire , 2007, her first book, details the independence of India in 1947 and the process leading up to it, as well as the consequences after independence.
• Red Heat. Conspiracy, Murder, and the Cold War in the Caribbean , 2011, covers the relationship of the United States with Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti during the time of the Cold War. Her overall framework is based on the idea that the Cold War was not a static phenomenon but instead dynamic and involved 'hot wars' as well. ^[5]
• Reel History: The World According to the Movies, 2015, a humourous look at the history of the world as told through the movies, expanding on her long-running column for the Guardian.
• Blood and Sand: Suez, Hungary, and Eisenhower's Campaign for Peace, 2016, about the Suez Crisis of 1956.
• Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues That Made History , 2021, an exploration of the stories of twelve statues or groups of statues of historical figures that later became contentious, prompted by the removal or defacement of statues during the George Floyd protests of 2020. ^[6]

She collaborated with Jeremy Paxman on his books The Political Animal and On Royalty . She also contributed to The Truth About Markets by John Kay, Does Education Matter? by Alison Wolf, and Not on the Label by Felicity Lawrence.

Podcasting and broadcasting

Tunzelmann is the alternating co-host of the light-hearted British newspaper review podcast Paper Cuts. ^[7] For BBC Radio 4, she wrote and presented the series The Lucan Obsession series of The History Podcast ^[8] and also wrote the series History's Secret Heroes. ^[9]

She appears regularly on Sky News and on BBC current affairs programmes.^{[ citation needed ]}

In May 2025, she appeared on the BBC Radio 4 podcast Great Lives , where a distinguished guest is asked to nominate the person they feel is truly deserving of the title "Great Life", and chose Ned Ludd. ^[10]

Screenwriting

Tunzelmann wrote the script for the movie Churchill , a film that received mixed reviews. Churchillian biographer Andrew Roberts noted the irony that, "Ms. von Tunzelmann—who once had a column in The Guardian that attacked movies for their historical errors—has twisted the truth about Churchill". ^[11] Matthew Norman in the Evening Standard acknowledged that despite the film's "fancifulness", it was "an interesting and original study of a magnificent but unsaintly man raging in the dark against the dying of the light". ^[12]

She also wrote episodes of the RAI period drama Medici , focusing on the powerful Florentine family.

Awards

Tunzelmann was recognized by the Financial Times as Young Business Writer of the Year, and was shortlisted for the 2022 Wolfson History Prize ^[13] for Fallen Idols.

References

1. von Tunzelmann, Alex [@alexvtunzelmann] (10 April 2014). "German origin but from Saxony, not Prussia. Family Estonian since c1600, New Zealanders since c1850. Would like red coat though" (Tweet). Retrieved 9 February 2021– via Twitter.
2. "Cheating student flees to Germany". Oxford Mail . Gannett Company. 10 September 1998. Retrieved 16 September 2017.
3. "Reel history". The Guardian . Retrieved 12 October 2021.
4. "Alex von Tunzelmann Writer". RCW. Retrieved 7 November 2024.
5. Random House of Canada (1 September 2011). Red Heat by Alex von Tunzelmann (YouTube). Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 9 August 2014.
6. Sands, Philippe (2 September 2021). "Monumental injustices — relics, racism and reparations". www.ft.com. Archived from the original on 2 September 2021. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
7. "Paper Cuts". Podmasters. 5 May 2023. Retrieved 7 November 2024.
8. "The Lucan Obsession". The History Podcast. BBC Radio 4. 28 October 2024. Retrieved 7 November 2024.
9. "1-Virginia Hall's Great Escape". History's Secret Heroes. BBC Radio 4. 31 May 2023. Retrieved 7 November 2024.
10. "BBC Radio 4 - Great Lives, Ned Ludd mythical leader of the Luddites". BBC.
11. Roberts, Andrew (1 May 2017). "Fake History in "Churchill," starring Brian Cox". The Churchill Project. Hillsdale College . Retrieved 29 March 2019.
12. Norman, Matthew (17 November 2017). "Churchill, film review: The bulldog's black dog". Evening Standard . Retrieved 7 November 2019.
13. "£50k Wolfson History Prize shortlist announced". Books+Publishing. 22 April 2022. Retrieved 29 April 2022.

External links

• Alex von Tunzelmann at Twitter
• Alex von Tunzelmann at IMDb
• "Short biography from McClelland".
• "Guardian newspaper's Film features". The Guardian. London. 21 July 2008. Archived from the original on 22 July 2008. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
• Corrigan, Maureen (2 August 2007). "In an Empire's End, Seeds of Freedom and Conflict". Fresh Air from WHYY. NPR.