Denys Blakeway

Denys Blakeway is an author and television producer with an abiding interest in the history of the twentieth century. His latest book, 'The Last Dance', profiles with insight and wit the amazingly eventful year of 1936. It was the year of the abdication of Edward VIII (as featured in the film 'The King's Speech'), Hitler's march into the Rhineland, the Berlin Olympics, the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the Jarrow March - and much more. It was truly a pivotal year in the troubled decade before the Second World War.

Denys was born in London in 1955 and spent his early years in Greece, a country with which he stll has a close connection. Alongside writing books he has made many television and radio programmes about contemporary history, politics, religion and the arts. In 1993 he wrote and produced 'Thatcher, The Downing Street Years' for BBC television in which Margaret Thatcher gave an enthralling account of her time as Prime Minister. The following year he set up Blakeway Productions, an independent production company, which has made many hours of quality radio and television documentaries (www.blakeway.co.uk).

Alongside 'The Last Dance' Denys has written books about British nuclear tests in the 1950s, the Falklands War and The Queen (whose family history has been the subject of many of his programmes).

Denys lives in Hampshire, England. He is married to Denise Johnstone-Burt, the publisher, and has three daughters.