Dr Timothy Phillips

Dr Timothy Phillips is a historian of the Cold War. His book, The Curtain and The Wall: A Modern Journey along Europe’s Cold War Border (Granta, 2022), was a Guardian Book of the Year and was widely praised for its new research and strong storytelling. He has travelled extensively in the former Soviet Union and on both sides of the old Iron Curtain, interviewing eyewitnesses and examining archives. He holds a doctorate in Russian from Oxford University and has spoken on Cold War history and contemporary Russia on BBC Radio 4 at the Barbican Centre and in numerous other venues. He is currently writing a history of the 1980s Olympic boycotts, while advising the Wende Museum in Los Angeles for its forthcoming exhibition on the same subject.