Barry Turner has worked on both sides of publishing, as an editor and an author. He has been a full-time writer for thirty years, but started writing long before that, first as a teacher and then as a journalist. He was deputy editor of New Education and then education correspondent for the Observer, before moving on to radio and television. He wrote and presented documentary series for Thames, Yorkshire and Granada Television on a variety of arts subjects, and made regular appearances on BBC current affairs programmes. He co-authored Adventures in Education (1969) and wrote a history of girls’ education entitled Equality for Some (1974), as well as A Place in the Country (1972), a bestseller about life in the great country houses which inspired the popular Thames Television series.

After working for Macmillan publishers, he returned to writing in the 1980s, and has since produced a wide range of work, including biographies of the actors John Le Mesurier, Richard Burton and Denholm Elliott, and political and economic studies. The first edition of The Writer's Handbook (1987), of which he is Editor, sold out within two months of publication, and its popularity continues to this day. Other notable books to his name include …And the Policeman Smiled (1990), the story of 10,000 Jewish children fleeing Nazi Germany, When Daddy Came Home (1995), a study of how family life changed after 1945, One Small Suitcase (2003), an adaptation of  ...And the Policeman Smiled for younger readers, and Countdown to Victory (2004), the story of the final European campaigns of World War II. His most recent book is Suez 1956: The Forgotten War (2006), a reassessment of the events surrounding the Suez crisis. He contributes regularly, reviews and serialises books for The Times and is founder and current chairman of the National Academy of Writing.

After twenty years of success as editor of The Writer's Handbook, Barry was appointed editor of The Statesman's Yearbook in 1997. He is currently Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Central England, and his current projects include a book on the Festival of Britain (for Aurum Press), and a comprehensive history of the Nazi Occupation of the Channel Islands in WWII.

Recent books:

Suez 1956: The Forgotten War (Hodder & Stoughton: 2006)

Countdown to Victory (Hodder & Stoughton: 2004)