A British historian and journalist, Garton Ash attended Cambridge University and received a doctorate in modern history from Oxford University. In the 1980s, he conducted historical research in the Federal Republic of Germany and also spent time in the GDR. His interest soon expanded into East Central Europe.

This took the form of reporting and essays for New York Review of Books, the Independent, the Times and the Spectator. He has held several prominent posts: Foreign Editor of the Spectator, editorial writer on Central European affairs for the London Times, and columnist on foreign affairs for the Independent. He has held fellowships at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford, and is also a fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. In addition to The Magic Lantern, he has also written the biographical/historical work, The File, based on his own history in the GDR and the opening of the archives of the Secret Police, which allowed him to read his own surveillance history. History of the Present: Essays, Sketches and Dispatches from Europe in the 1990s appeared in 2000. He continues to write for The Guardian and has been awarded many honorary degrees and recognized as a public intellectual.