Anthony Summers

Anthony Bruce Summers born 21 December 1942 is an Irish author He is a Pulitzer Prize Finalist and has written ten nonfiction books He worked for the BBC in current affairs coverage as a producer and then as an assistant editor of the longrunning investigative documentary series Panorama His first book was published in 1976 Summers is an Irish citizen who has been working with Robbyn Swan for more than thirty years before she became his coauthor and fourth wife After studying modern languages at Oxford University he began work in laboring jobs later progressing to freelance reporting for London newspapers He later worked at Granada TVs World in Action the UKs first tabloid public affairs program and following that he wrote the news for the Swiss Broadcasting Corporations Overseas Service Later he went back to England to BBCs Television News and then the BBCs 24 Hours a late evening current affairs show that brought viewers international coverage of events Summers became the BBCs youngest Producer at 24 travelling worldwide and sending filmed reports from the United States across Central and Latin America and the conflicts in Vietnam the Middle East and Africa A main focus though was on the momentous events of the 1960s and 1970s in the United States such as onthespot reports during 1968 on the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr and on Robert F Kennedys bid for the presidency He smuggled cameras into the then Soviet Union to obtain the only TV interview with dissident physicist Andrei Sakharov when he was under house arrest having just won the 1975 Nobel Peace Prize Before moving on from the BBC Summers became an Assistant Editor of the weekly program Panorama Based in Ireland for many years he has since the mid1970s concentrated on investigative nonfiction sometimes taking four to five years to complete a book Summers has written about historical figures including Tsar Nicholas II of Russia President John F Kennedy FBI Director J Edgar Hoover President Richard Nixon and Admiral Husband Kimmel who commanded the US fleet at Pearl Harbor He is author of a major book on the 911 attacks on New York and Washington He has also written biographies of celebrities Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra and investigations of Britains Profumo Affair and the 2007 disappearance in Portugal of the British child Madeleine McCann Most of Summers books were developed as TV documentaries Honeytrap was credited as a source for the John Hurt movie Scandal Summers published The File on the Tsar with former BBC colleague Tom Mangold in 1976 The book is on the disappearance and presumed execution of Nicholas II last Tsar of Russia and his family In the UK The Sunday Times said it demolished the massacre story beyond recovery There is not a dull page in this book In the USA the Los Angeles Times called it a compelling and impressive work Cosmopolitan deemed it sensationala masterful work of great suspense meticulously researched In a comparison that must surely have pleased the authors The Toronto Sun rated the books superlative investigative reporting that makes Woodward and Bernstein seem like beginners Source Article Anthony Summers from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30