Simon Berthon

Simon Berthon has been described by The Daily Telegraph as a 'formidable Second World War Historian' . He became the editor of BBC Northern Ireland's current affairs programme Spotlight, moved to ITV's investigative series World in Action  where he won a Gold Hugo at the Chicago Film Festival, and went on to make the major historical series The Shape of the World which won a Gold Medal at the New York Film and Television Festival.

He was a founding partner of 3BM Television, overseeing a stream of high quality and award-winning historical and investigative documentaries.

His books, Allies at War: Churchill v Roosevelt v De Gaulle (Thistle, 2011) and Warlords (Thistle, 2006) are immaculately researched accounts of the mind games and diplomacy played by leaders in World War Two as well as examining their complex relationships, deals and decision making. 

His first novel A Secret Worth Killing For (HQ, 2018), is a wonderful piece of storytelling based partly in the Northern Ireland and partly in present day Westminster. Maire Anne McCarthy is about to become Minister of State for Security and Immigration - but will the echoes of her Republican family and a missing boyfriend from her days at University come back to haunt her?

A Time to Lie (HQ, 2020) opens on the morning of the Tory Party conference, when the bones of a young woman’s hand are discovered in a London building site. Jed Fowkes, Special Adviser at the Treasury, confronts Prime Minister Robin Sandford with a terrible accusation. He claims the hand belongs to someone they once knew well: a young woman whom Sandford murdered years ago. With his career on the brink of ruin, the Prime Minister’s only hope is to enlist the unofficial help of MI5. A decision which leads him into a new world of espionage, illegal trafficking and murder.