Philip Short

For the former Louisiana state senator, see Phil Short. For the Irish chess player, see Philip Short (chess player). For the Australian botanist, see Philip Sydney Short.

Philip Short
Born	(1945-04-17) 17 April 1945 (age 80) Bristol, England
Nationality	British
Education	Sherborne School, Dorset
Alma mater	Queens' College, Cambridge
Occupation(s)	Journalist and author
Years active	1967—present
Employer	BBC
Known for	BBC overseas correspondent (for 25 years)

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

Early life and education

Short was born in Bristol. He was educated at Sherborne School, ^[1] a boarding and day public school for boys (now coeducational), in the market town of Sherborne in Dorset, followed by Queen's College at the University of Cambridge. ^[2]

Life and career

After graduation, Short spent the years from 1967 to 1973 as a freelance journalist, first in Malawi, then in Uganda. He then joined the BBC as a foreign correspondent. He worked there for 25 years. He is the author of several books, among them the biographies of Hastings Banda, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, François Mitterrand, and Vladimir Putin. ^{[3] [4]}

Short presented a TV documentary on Mao Zedong entitled Mao's Bloody Revolution Revealed on the UK terrestrial station Five in May 2007. ^{[5] [6]}

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

1. "Institute of Regional Security - Philip Short". Institute of Regional Security. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
2. "Philip Short". Institute for Regional Security. Retrieved 22 July 2025.
3. "Philip Short". David Higham Associates. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
4. "Short, Philip 1945- | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
5. Mao's Bloody Revolution, Revealed, 24 May 2007, retrieved 28 April 2022
6. "Revealed - Mao's Bloody Revolution - TheTVDB.com". thetvdb.com. Retrieved 28 April 2022.

External links

• Interview about Pol Pot
• Video of Short meeting Chinese refugees returning from Vietnam, BBC News video report from August 1978
• Appearances on C-SPAN
  • Booknotes interview with Short on Mao: A Life, 2 April 2000.