Historian
Taylor took a Double First in History at Christ’s College, Cambridge and has spent his career making history documentaries for broadcasters around the world and writing popular histories for the British and international markets. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Articles
Taylor Downing regularly contributes articles, features and reviews to magazines, journals and papers. He writes a monthly feature on classic war films for Military History Matters.
Recent articles include:
Military History Matters:
A series of five features on the transition from World War to Cold War to mark the anniversary of events 1945 into 1946 entitled The Iron Curtain
A series of four features on the final campaigns of the Second World War to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the war entitled Endgame
A series of features to mark the 150th anniversary of Churchill’s birth
A series of features on the various Deception campaigns of WW2 entitled The Deceivers
A feature on the making of the TV series The World at War
A feature on the BBC at War
The Sunday Times:
On the 80th anniverary of VE Day a different version of how people celebrated in the words of those who lived through it at the time and recorded by Mass Observation.
The Saturday Telegraph:
A feature on shell shock in World War One to mark the publication of Breakdown - Shell Shock on the Somme
Previous features include:
History Today:
Taylor has been a regular contributor and reviewer for History Today and was a judge of the Longmans/History Today annual Book Prize for many years.
Features include:
The Great War - a feature on the making of the epic 1964 BBC television series
Scientists in Uniform - the WW1 exploits of Nobel prize winner William Lawrence Bragg
The World at War - a feature on the making of the great television series
Military History Matters:
A regular feature called 'War on Film' telling the story of the making of some classic war films along with reviews of recent movies, including:
Nuremberg
Churchill at War
Riefenstahl
Warfare
Blitz
Bridge on the River Kwai
Schindler's List
Zulu
Battle of the Bulge
Culloden
Henry V
Rome, Open City
Dunkirk
M.A.S.H.
The Hurt Locker
Catch 22
Saving Private Ryan and other D-Day films like The Longest Day and Overlord
Napoleon
Memphis Belle
A Farewell To Arms
La Grande Illusion
All Quiet on the Western Front
Paths of Glory
Regeneration
Aces High
Dr Strangelove
The Cruel Sea
One of Our Aircraft is Missing
School for Secrets
The Man Who Never Was
The Dam Busters
The FIrst of the Few
In Which We Serve
And many, many more...
Past and Future - Institute of Historical Research
Televising History
Talks
Taylor regularly gives talks on many subjects relating to the world wars and to his books. For three successive years he gave Churchill Lectures at the Imperial War Museum’s Churchill War Rooms - all three of which were complete sell outs. He has given talks at the Science Museum, the National Army Museum, the Royal Aeronautical Society and at Bletchley Park.
Taylor also regularly gives talks on Television and History and has lectured on this subject at Cambridge University, at Queen’s University, Belfast and at Lincoln University.
He frequently appears at book festivals and has recently given talks at the Edinburgh Book Festival, at 'Ways with Words' at Dartington and at 'Words by the Water' Festival in Keswick, at the Henley Literary Festival, the Warwick Book Festival, at the Hampstead and Highgate Literary Festival, at the Scarborough Book Festival, the Cheltenham Literary Festival and at several others.
Taylor has given many talks on his latest book at the Chiswick Book Festival, the Mere Literary Festival and at the National Army Museum.
Taylor has also recently given talks to the Eton College History Society and to 400 Sixth-Formers at Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith.
He has given talks about Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in London and at the British Museum.
His many recent media appearances include for CNN International, BBC1's Heir Hunters, Radio 4’s Things We Forgot to Remember and Channel 5’s Beat the Ancestors.
He regularly talks at Historical Association societies in the south-east.
Taylor can be booked to give talks on a variety of related topics. Please click on Contacts page.
Taylor provided historical background to Christiane Amanpour for CNN International's coverage of the D-Day anniversary which was shown across Europe, Asia and Africa. See:
http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2014/06/06/amanpour-tours-churchills-bunker/?hpt=hp_bn9
And many more...
Including lectures on Cold War films at the Vermont International Film Festival in USA
Upcoming Talks and Tours:
22 Jan 2026: Beckenham Historical Association - The Army that Never Was
3 Feb 2026: British Modern Military History Society - 1983 - The World at the Brink
19 Feb 2026: Hampstead Historical Association - 1983 - The World at the Brink
19 Mar 2026: Henrietta Barnet School - Cold War Crises: The World at the Brink of Nuclear Disaster
21 Mar 2026: Tour of the Imperial War Museum for The Latymer Foundation
SOME LINKS:
Taylor's podcast on the events of 1983 for BBC History Magazine:
https://www.historyextra.com/period/1983-the-cold-war-almost-goes-nuclear/
Prize Nominations
Taylor's book 1983 - The World at the Brink was shortlisted for a highly prestigious book prize, the Pushkin Prize.
Taylor’s book Spies in the Sky was short listed for the prestigious Royal United Services/Duke of Westminster Award for Military Literature. Taylor was delighted to be short listed with such a distinguished group of historians that also included Gary Sheffield, John Gaddis and Max Hastings.
Reviews
Recent reviews written by Taylor Downing feature the following books:
Helen Fry, The White Lady for Military History Matters
Richard Dannatt and Robert Lyman, Korea: War Without End
Peter Caddick-Adams, Winston Churchill
Daniel Todman, Britain's War (two volumes)
Richard Overy, Blood and Ruins: The Great Imperial War, 1931-1945
Peter Caddick-Adams, 1945: Victory in the West for BBC HIstory
Adam Higginbotham, Midnight in Chernobyl for BBC History
James Holland, Sicily '43 for Military History Monthly
Daniel Siemens, Stormtroopers for Military History Monthly
Rodric Braithwaite, Armageddon and Paranoia for History Today
Lynne Olson, Last Hope Island for Military History Monthly
Richard Dannatt, Boots on the Ground for Military History Monthly
Sarah Helm, If This Is a Woman: Inside Ravensbrück or History Today
James Wyllie and Michael McKinley, The Codebreakers for History Today
Alban Webb, London Calling: Britain, the BBC World Service and the Cold War for History Today
Ben Urwand, The Collaboration: Hollywood's Pact with Hitler for History Today
Calder Walton, Empire of Secrets for History Today
Luke McKernan, Charles Urban for History Today
Richard Toye, The Roar of the Lion for History Today
Sinclair McKay, The Secret Listeners for Military History Monthly
Clive Aslet, War Memorial for Military History Monthly
Christine Halsell, Women of Intelligence for History Today
Ian Senior, Home Before the Leaves Fall for Military History Monthly
David Edgerton, Britain’s War Machine for History Today
And many, many more...
The Observer Magazine:
The Hitler home movies: how Eva Braun documented the dictator’s private life
(with Robert McCrum)
Eva Braun was the most intimate chronicler of the Nazi regime, capturing Hitler’s private life with her cine-camera…
History Today:
From the Archive – RAF Films: On Record, Off Target
The RAF’s actions as they were depicted in popular culture, particularly in the films of the day, bore little resemblance to what it was doing…
The Journal of British Cinema and Television Vol 10:
The Cold War – A Personal View
‘The trouble with the Cold war is that nothing really happened.’ These were the words of one of the leading TV commissioning editors of history programmes…