Taylor Downing is a Historian, Writer and Broadcaster. He has written several best selling books and has produced more than 200 television documentaries many of which have won Awards.
Stop Press:
Taylor now has a YouTube channel which features newly recorded short videos on VE-Day and on D-Day among other recordings.​
Taylor had an article in The Sunday Times 4th May 2025, revealing a different version of VE-Day in the words of those who lived through it at the time and recorded by Mass Observation.
Taylor gave a series of webinar Talks for Martin Randall Travel. The subject was 'Churchill and the Boffins: Science and Scientists at War'. The five webinars took place between 11 April and 9 May 2024.
Taylor's feature length article in The Sunday Times Magazine in November 2023 to mark the 80th anniversary of the 1983 Soviet war scare attracted a lot of comment. Many of the posts refer to an 'excellent read' and a 'great article'. One says 'This goes to number 1 in my articles of the year list'.
Taylor's new book published by Icon Books to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day is 'The Army that Never Was: D-Day and the Great Deception'.
Taylor recorded several podcast relating to this book and to the D-Day Deception campaign including with Dan Snow​
And the WW2 podcast:​
Taylor wrote several features about the book including for the BBC, the Daily Express and for Unseen Histories
Other News:
Taylor's book 1942 - Britain At The Brink was published in January 2022. It was reviewed by Max Hastings in The Sunday Times and was serialised in the Mail on Sunday.
To mark the publication of Taylor's previous book 1942 - Britain at the Brink, Dan Snow has interviewed Taylor for his immensely popular History Hit podcast.​
Taylor appeared in a series of tv documentaries to mark the 80th anniversary of Pearl Harbour called Attack on Pearl Harbor: Minute by Minute. The series was shown on Channel 5 in the UK and on National Geographic and Netflix in the US. Taylor appeared in every episode and was the only British historian in the series.​
Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook's The Rest Is History podcast includes an episode recorded with Taylor about his book 1983: The World At the Brink. Tom and Dominic are effusive about the book and Taylor talks of nuclear scares across the Cold War as well as events in 1983.​
And for the first podcast of the At the Brink series produced by the William Perry Project in the US:​
Taylor's book on the little known Cold War scare entitled 1983 - The World at the Brink was published in April 2018 and came ut in paperback later in the year.
The book has generated immense interest and some great reviews. Historian Tom Holland has tweeted about 'Taylor Downing's gripping and frankly terrifying book on the US-Soviet nuclear confrontation.'
Dominic Sandbrook in The Sunday Times wrote 'Downing has written a carefully researched and hugely readable acount...Like the plot of some blockbuster by Frederick Forsyth, Downing's book piles up events with frightening speed.'
The book which has been serialised in the Daily Mail who described it as 'rivetting' is being called 'a real-life thriller'.
Taylor has been interviewed by CNN International many times often by Christiane Amanpour.
In 2015 Taylor was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Fellows are elected because of their 'original contribution to historical scholarship'. Taylor said he was 'flattered and delighted' to become a Fellow of the RHS.​
Spies in the Sky was short listed for the prestigious Royal United Services/Duke of Westminster Award for Military Literature. The award was won by All Hell Let Lose by Max Hastings. Taylor was delighted to be short listed with such a distinguished group of historians that also included Gary Sheffield, John Gaddis and David Stevenson.
Taylor appeard in Radio 4's Past Forward series in January to mark the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the BBC.​