News

Ali Fortescue is a Political Correspondent at Sky News. She has been at the forefront of Sky’s coverage during some of the biggest political events of the decade, reporting live on Downing Street on the day Boris Johnson and Liz Truss resigned, following Rishi Sunak’s leadership campaign around the country and securing several exclusive with cabinet ministers. Ali’s interview with Boris Johnson in the weeks before he resigned was a memorable moment in the downfall of his premiership.

Her areas of interest, alongside British politics in general, include immigration (she regularly interviews senior home office ministers, including the Home Secretary) and European politics. She was one of two Sky Correspondents who covered the French election in Paris, following ‘Camp Le Pen’ in the build up to the election. In the weeks leading up to the outbreak of war in Ukraine Ali was sent to the Baltic States where she followed NATO exercises and reported live from the Russian border.

Ali also often presents Sky News’ weekly PMQs round-up, “PMQs unwrapped”, and data screens on big political days (for example the recent parliamentary inquiry into Boris Johnson). She regularly has an analysis slot on Kay Burley at Breakfast, called “Ali’s Take”. As well as TV, Ali also writes analysis for Sky News online, contributes to the weekly politics podcast and Sky’s social media channels.

Before Sky, Ali worked at BBC News, reporting for the News Channel and BBC Breakfast.

Dominic Sandbrook is a historian, broadcaster and columnist.

He is known for his best-selling series of books on life in post-war Britain- Never Had It So Good, White Heat, State of Emergency and Seasons in the Sun, The Great British Dream Factory and Who Dares Wins: Britain, 1979-1982– He has also written two books on recent American history, Eugene McCarthy and Mad as Hell and a six book series called Adventures in Time for younger readers.

Dominic has written and presented several series for television including the four-part series The 70s and The 80s with Dominic Sandbrook for BBC Two, Dominic has presented a number of other series including, Tomorrow’s Worlds: The Unearthly History of Science Fiction, a three-part series, Strange Days; Cold War Britain and a four-part series, Let Us Entertain You, in which he explored the extraordinary success of British popular culture over the last century all on BBC Two. He also presented a documentary about the German car industry’s successes, Das Auto: The Germans, Their Cars and Us for the channel.

Dominic co-presents the world’s most popular history podcast, The Rest is History, which has tens of thousands of subscribers and more than 100 million downloads. He has presented live history shows to sell-out audiences in New York, Washington, Dublin, Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland, as well as venues across Britain, including the West End.

He has been a book critic for the Sunday Times for almost twenty years, and joined The Times as a columnist in 2023. He wrote a column in BBC History for more than a decade and was previously a columnist for the Evening Standard, the New Statesman and the Daily Mail. Marking their 25th anniversary in 2007, Waterstones picked him as one of their 25 Authors for the Future. Dominic was nominated as Critic of the Year in the National Press Awards for 2018, and as Comment Journalist of the Year in the British Journalism Awards for 2021.

Dominic was born in Shropshire and educated at Malvern College before studying at Balliol College, Oxford, the University of St Andrews and Jesus College, Cambridge. He was formerly a history lecturer at Sheffield and senior fellow at the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford. A fellow of the Royal Historical Society, he is also a fervent Wolverhampton Wanderers fan.

Adam Boulton is a pioneering broadcaster and veteran political journalist.

He currently presents Times Radio’s flagship Sunday morning programme as well as stints presenting Drive as well as the Worldview podcast for Englesberg Ideas. He is a weekly columnist for Sky News online and Reaction Life, as well as being a political commentator on the BBC, LBC, i newspaper, Talk TV and numerous international outlets. Adam also speaks to and moderates at conferences and private meetings, most recently at the FII Future Investment Forum and the LEAP Tech Event.

Adam’s insatiable appetite for breaking news, ability to think on his feet and innate analytical skills have seen him host countless hours of live television including rolling Election Coverage from the UK, US, Ireland, France and Germany.

Adam was the founding Political Editor of Sky News. Over more than three decades at the network he reported from every continent with a wide-ranging brief, encompassing everything from politics to popular culture. Programmes he presented included the eponymous weekly show, and post-Brexit, the daily All Out Politics programme and podcast. In 2010 Adam was instrumental in brokering a deal with David Cameron, Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg to stage the ground-breaking General Election Leaders Debates, so far the only UK election cycle in which they have taken place. He moderated the second debate in Bristol, the most watched Sky News programme to date.

In at the beginning of two start-ups, Sky in 1989 and TVam in 1983, Adam redefined political news coverage in the UK, harnessing developing technology to introduce on-location reportage, reaction and analysis in real time. Unique at the time, this is now the industry standard. Never shy to speak his mind, Adam’s celebrated on-air spat with Alastair Campbell in the aftermath of the 2010 election is still one of the most memorable moments of that campaign. Adam was a popular choice as winner of the Royal Television Society’s supreme Judges’ Award.

Adam has the distinction of having interviewed every UK Prime Minister from Sir Alec Douglas Home to Rishi Sunak. He has covered all major developments in US politics since the Reagan years, from the USA-USSR Summits through to correctly ‘calling’ the election of President Joseph R Biden live on Sky News. He was in Washington DC again covering the second impeachment of Donald J Trump.

Adam served as Chairman of the Parliamentary Lobby, the elite band of senior political journalists in Westminster, he continues to hold a lobby ticket.

His books include Tony’s Ten Years: Memories of the Blair Administration, an acclaimed account of the Blair government, and the equally well received Hung Together: The 2010 Election and the Coalition Government. He was the political columnist for The Sunday Times for seven years and now writes for a number of leading newspapers and periodicals.

Much in demand as a public speaker, Adam has delivered keynote lectures for multi-national businesses, economic forums, universities, and media companies. A series of interviews he gave recently on the changing face of the British media has sparked a national debate that shows no sign of abating.

Although best known for his political programmes, Adam has a wide spectrum of interests and is both well informed and witty on a range of subjects. He was a long-serving governor of King’s College London and Sevenoaks School. His TV portfolio includes appearances on such diverse shows as Have I Got News for You, Newsnight, Celebrity Mastermind and Christmas University Challenge. He is proactive on social media, with over 220,000 followers on Twitter.

Tim Bouverie is a historian and journalist. His first book Appeasing Hitler: Chamberlain, Churchill and the Road to War was a Sunday Times Bestseller and was shortlisted for the prestigious Orwell Prize. The book has been translated into eleven languages and is regarded as the first major narrative account of appeasement.

Having studied history at Oxford, Tim worked on historical and political documentaries before joining Channel 4 News, where he worked as a political journalist alongside Michael Crick.

During Tim’s four and a half years at Channel 4, he covered almost every significant political event, including two General Elections and the Scottish and EU referendums.

Tim regularly reviews history and politics books for The Times, Spectator, Observer and Daily Telegraph and has written for the Wall Street Journal.

Tim’s second book, Perfect Pitch: 100 pieces of classical music to bring joy, tears, solace, empathy, inspiration (& everything in between) was published in October 2021. He is currently writing a new book on Allied diplomacy during WWII.

A confident public speaker, Tim has given lectures and after dinner speeches across the United States and Britain and is a regular contributor to the Chalke Valley History Festival, where he has interviewed John Major, Peter Mandelson, George Osborne and Alan Johnson. For the last two years he has hosted a series of interviews for the Birley Clubs with guests including, Joanna Lumley, Ben Macintyre and Max Hastings.

‘One of the most promising young historians to enter our field for years’ – Max Hastings

‘Appeasing Hitler is the stunning debut of a major new narrative historian.’ – Professor Margaret Macmillan

‘Brilliant and sparkling … reads like a thriller. I couldn’t put it down’ – Peter Frankopan

‘The best account of the subject that I have ever read… Not only dramatic but sparkling and
witty’ – Professor Sir Michael Howard

Michael has been journalist for more than 40 years and was a founding member of Channel 4 News in 1982, and later served as the programme’s Washington Correspondent. He joined the BBC in 1990 and worked on Panorama before joining Newsnight in 1992. He was political editor of Newsnight from 2007-11 and then re-joined Channel 4 News as political correspondent from 2011 until 2019. He later presented his own show on Mail Plus, The Michael Crick report.

Michael has also presented Dispatches programmes for Channel 4 including Boris v Dave: The Battle for Europe and Plebs, Lies and Videotape. He has presented on LBC Radio together with a number of programmes for BBC Radio 4 including How to Win a Tory Leadership Election and the ten-part series Tales from the Lobby.

He won Royal Television Society awards in 1989 and 2002 and has twice been awarded RTS Specialist Journalist of the Year, in 2013 and 2017. In 2018 he was awarded the prestigious Charles Wheeler Award.

Crick is the author of several books, including biographies of Nigel Farage, David Butler, Arthur Scargill, Jeffrey Archer and Alex Ferguson, and of Michael Howard and Michael Heseltine.

It has been said that the five most terrifying words in the political lexicon are: “Michael Crick is in reception”. It has also been said that “One of the crowning glories of the uncodified British constitution is called “Michael Crick”.”
Former special advisor to the Office of the Prime Minister, Theo Bertram, said of Michael – “If I was a Minister, I’d sooner face a million angry Tweeters & their online petitions, than one Michael Crick.”

Carolyn Quinn has been a much loved voice on BBC Radio 4 for decades. She started out in broadcasting “as a hobby”, by getting involved with hospital radio at Charing Cross Hospital. It was an unlikely beginning to a journalism career that has stretched over five decades and seen her hosting some of the nation’s best known and important radio shows. After taking a degree in French, Carolyn joined the BBC Local Radio reporters’ scheme. She moved to the BBC’s political and parliamentary team in 1989 and became a Political Correspondent on TV and radio in 1994.

In 2004 Carolyn joined the presenting line-up on Radio 4’s Today programme, staying with Today until 2008. From 2001 she was also a regular presenter of BBC Radio 4’s PM programme while becoming the main presenter of Radio 4’s The Westminster Hour in January 2007, stepping down in March 2023. She has also presented Radio 4’s overnight election programmes covering the referendums as well as general and local elections. All that means she has had a front-row seat for political events, from Blair to Brexit to Covid and beyond but as a live broadcaster she has also covered a wide range of non-political domestic and foreign affairs topics and has fronted documentaries.

Much respected by her peers, Carolyn was the first woman elected Chair of the Westminster Press Gallery in 2011.

Carolyn’s skills at chairing and moderating debates mean she’s in demand as a host for book and product launches, front of audience events, Q&As and audio projects including podcasts and audio books requiring a warm and experienced broadcast voice.

Camilla Tominey is Associate Editor covering Politics and Royals at The Daily Telegraph in London.

She is also the resident royal expert on ITV’s This Morning and appears frequently on royal documentaries on BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. She currently presents her own Sunday
morning political programme on GB News.

Camilla often takes part in the BBC’s Question Time and Politics Live in her capacity as a member of the Westminster Lobby.

Camilla was formerly Political Editor, Royal Editor and columnist for the Sunday Express. She first started reporting on the British Royal Family in 2005, when she covered the King’s marriage
to Camilla Parker-Bowles at the Windsor Guildhall, watched by millions around the world.

Since then she has reported on all the major Royal stories, including Prince William’s engagement to Kate Middleton, their subsequent marriage and the births of Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. Her world exclusive scoops include breaking the news of Prince Harry’s relationship with Meghan Markle, which was nominated for Scoop of the Year at the 2016 British Press Awards.

Camilla co-anchored both recent Royal Weddings for NBC’s Today Show, contributing to programming across the network that was watched by 55 million viewers.

An authority on Royalty, Camilla has spent the past decade shadowing the Royals at home and on tour. A seasoned interviewer, Camilla has been granted exclusive access to interview many
members of the Royal Family including Prince Harry, Zara Phillips, the Duchess of York and the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh.

Internationally, as well as NBC she has worked with CBC, CTV and Global in Canada, Nine Network Australia, Germany’s ZDF and ARD, RTL in France and countless more broadcasters.

In 2019, she was awarded Journalist of the Year by the McLean-DB Recovery+ Awards, the ‘Oscars’ in the field of recovery from addiction for her work highlighting the plight of children of alcoholics.

She was nominated Multimedia Journalist of the Year at the 2021 London Press Club Awards, and Journalist of the Year at the Digital Publishing Awards 2023.
Camilla lives in Hertfordshire with her husband and three children.