Journalist and historian. He was a foreign correspondent for The Times throughout the 1980s and early 90s, covering central and eastern Europe. His books include Austrians: Tales from the Vienna Woods, Hitler’s Spy Chief: The Wilhelm Canaris Mystery, Balkan Hours, A History of the Habsburg Army (2014) and the widely acclaimed Last Days of Old Europe (2018).
View excerpt from Richard Bassett’s lecture – ‘Austria’s Horatio Nelson: Admiral Tegetthoff and the Battle of Lissa (1866)’ (London Lecture Afternoon, October 2017).