Columnist From 2008 to 2016, Tunzelmann wrote a column for
The Guardian entitled "Reel history", in which she discussed and rated popular films for their historical accuracy. She has also written for
The New York Times,
Los Angeles Times,
The Washington Post,
The Daily Telegraph,
Conde Nast Traveller, the
BBC News website, the
Financial Times and
The Daily Beast.
Author Tunzelmann has written five non fiction popular history books •
Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire, 2007, her first book, details the independence of
India in 1947 and the process leading up to it, as well as the consequences after independence. •
Red Heat. Conspiracy, Murder, and the Cold War in the Caribbean, 2011, covers the relationship of the United States with Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti during the time of the
Cold War. Her overall framework is based on the idea that the Cold War was not a static phenomenon but instead dynamic and involved 'hot wars' as well. •
Reel History: The World According to the Movies, 2015, a humorous look at the history of the world as told through the movies, expanding on her long-running column for the
Guardian. • ''Blood and Sand: Suez, Hungary, and Eisenhower's Campaign for Peace'', 2016, about the
Suez Crisis of 1956. •
Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues That Made History, 2021, an exploration of the stories of twelve statues or groups of statues of historical figures that later became contentious, prompted by the
removal or defacement of statues during the
George Floyd protests of 2020. She collaborated with
Jeremy Paxman on his books
The Political Animal and
On Royalty. She also contributed to
The Truth About Markets by
John Kay,
Does Education Matter? by Alison Wolf, and
Not on the Label by Felicity Lawrence.
Podcasting and broadcasting Tunzelmann is the alternating co-host of the light-hearted British newspaper review podcast
Paper Cuts. For
BBC Radio 4, she wrote and presented the series
The Lucan Obsession series of
The History Podcast and also wrote the series ''History's Secret Heroes''. She appears regularly on
Sky News and on
BBC current affairs programmes. In May 2025, she appeared on the
BBC Radio 4 podcast
Great Lives, where a distinguished guest is asked to nominate the person they feel is truly deserving of the title "Great Life", and chose
Ned Ludd.
Screenwriting Tunzelmann wrote the script for the 2017 movie
Churchill, a film that received mixed reviews. Churchillian biographer
Andrew Roberts noted the
irony that, "Ms. von Tunzelmann—who once had a column in
The Guardian that attacked movies for their historical errors—has twisted the truth about Churchill." Matthew Norman in the
Evening Standard acknowledged that despite the film's "fancifulness", it was "an interesting and original study of a magnificent but unsaintly man raging in the dark against the dying of the light." She also wrote episodes of the
RAI period drama
Medici, focusing on
the powerful Florentine family.
Awards Tunzelmann was recognized by the
Financial Times as Young Business Writer of the Year, and was shortlisted for the 2022
Wolfson History Prize for
Fallen Idols. ==References==