Martin Sixsmith Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Martin Sixsmith is a British journalist, author, and television/radio presenter. In 1980, he joined the BBC and was a foreign correspondent who reported from Moscow prior to the ending of the Cold War.

He was also a Poland reporter during the “Solidarity Uprising” before being posted to Washington during Bill Clinton’s first election and his presidency. In 1997, Martin left the BBC and went to work for Tony Blair that had just been newly elected.
He would become a civil servant working as Director of Communications with Alistair Darling, Frank Field, and Harriet Harman. He would then work as a director for GEC and oversaw the rebranding of Marconi plc.

In 2001, he went back to working for the government and worked as Communications Director for the Department of Transport and Local Government. He just got into the job in time to be involved in the “Jo Moore Scandal.”

Moore had been a special adviser to Stephen Byers the transport secretary. He would become the subject of a lot of condemnation when he suggested that some controversial announcement be buried following the September 11 2001 attacks.

Martin got deeply embroiled in the Jo Moore scandal when he penned an email in which he advised Moore and Byers to desist from burying more bad news related to the scandal.

His actions got him onto the radar of Dwoming Street as the higher-ups at Number 10 attempted to make him resign from his post. When they failed to compel him to resign, they ultimately issued an apology and had to pay compensation.
Many people in Britain expected Martin Sixsmith to write an autobiography or memoir following his departure from the civil service. In fact, it is believed that he was gagged by the government and had to instead pen a fiction novel.
“Spin,” which was published in 2004 was a near-future political work that echoes his experiences during his time working for the British government. He would then follow that up with “I Heard Lenin Laugh” his second novel in 2005.
In 2006, BBC Radio 4 commissioned the author to present several programs on Russian art, literature, and poetry. In 2008, Sixsmith was commissioned to work on two documentaries that explored the legacy of the Russian KGB.
He was also the presenter of “The Snowy Streets of St Petersburg,” the BBC documentary about writers and artists that left the countries of the former Eastern bloc.

In 2009, he published what is most probably his most popular work “The Lost Child of Philomena Lee”. It is a work set in the 1950s that tells of the forced separation of a child and his mother.

The despicable act had been committed by Irish convent nuns and the author follows the happenings including the attempts of the child and mother to contact each other.

The work was adapted into” Philomena” the film under the direction of Stephen Frears that starred Steve Coogan and was written by Jeff Pope and Coogan. The film was released in the United Kingdom in 2013 and made its premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
Thereafter, Martin Sixsmith was an advisor to the producers of “The Thick of It,” the BBC political situation comedy, and “In the Loop,” the Oscar-nominated film. In 2011, he was the presenter of a 50-part history of Russian documentary titled “Russia: The Wild East” which had been commissioned by BBC Radio 4.

In 2014, the author presented a 25-part program for BBC radio on the history of psychiatry and psychology.

Martin Sixsmith’s Spin is set in 2011 and the New Project Party which is the party in power is hellbent on a moral revival campaign. The leader of the party is Selwyn Knox that has just been appointed Department for Society minister. He has carefully selected his team and he expects them to buckle down and administer morality.

In the meantime, the Prime Minister at Downing Street has been afflicted with a few smears of his own. He needs to immediately send an official to Cambridge to hunt down the man behind the smear campaign.

From this work, it is clear that the work is inspired by the experience of the author to make a duplicitous and murky world of politics that in its unapologetic panic resembles The Thick of It by the BBC.

Unflinching and believable, Sixmith makes a shameless and unpredictable spin. He is an expert at sustaining the readers’ interest as he reveals his surprises at just the right moment. Sometimes unlikely and sometimes dark, it makes for an intriguing story as he leads his readers into a world rarely seen.

“I Heard Lenin Laugh” by Martin Sixsmith is a work that vividly captures the life of Sergei Yesenin. He is a man navigating loneliness, loss, and love at the height of the Russian Revolution.

He is a young poet who has been molded by childhood abandonment and has ambitions of becoming Russia’s most famous poet at a time of terror, revolution, and war.

He is a sensitive soul who is looking for meaning through fame, poetry, and passionate affairs with men and women. But then he meets Zinaida Raikh the beautiful actress and his life is changed forever.

Soon enough, his success gets the attention of the family of the Tsar and the likes of Trotsky and Rasputin. He becomes friends with Isadora Duncan, the most famous dancer in the world. He also becomes friends with many famous poets and soon has the reverence of millions.
Schoolchildren are soon learning Sergei’s verses by heart and the soldiers of the Red Army recite them when heading into battle. Yuri Gagarin who was the first man in space also had his poetry on that historic flight into space.
However, Yesenin is obsessed with fame and this turns out to be destructive and dangerous not only for himself but also for those that love him.

It is a magnificent insight into the life of a troubled but tender man and also into the history of the times he lived in.

“The Lost Child of Philomena Lee” is arguably Martin Sixsmith’s most popular work. The work introduces Philomena Lee, a girl that had been sent to an Irish convent when she fell pregnant as a teenager in 1952.

Deemed a fallen woman, the nuns at the convent had taken her kid and sold it to America for adoption just like they had done for thousands of others. Five decades later, Philomena decides to find her son.

In the United States, her son Michael Hess is also trying to find her. He had made a name and reputation for himself in America and is a leading lawyer in the administration of the elder Bush.

Still, he is struggling to keep his secrets hidden as they may threaten his career progression in the Republican Party and make it more difficult to find his biological mother.

It is a gripping story penned with novelistic intrigue as the author pulls back the curtain on the evils of the Catholic Church in forced adoptions. She is also great at showcasing the love between a son and his mother that endured decades of separation.