Oliver August

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oliver August (born July 17, 1971) is a journalist and author.

August was born in Bremerhaven and grew up in northern Germany. His father was a theatre director and his mother an architect. He spent a year at a high school in Canada as an exchange student. Aged twenty, he went to Oxford University to take a Bachelors degree in philosophy, politics and economics. He also received a Masters degree in international relations from City University, London.

He joined The Times as a trainee reporter in the business section in 1995. Eventually, he worked for the paper in America, China and the Middle East. During his seven years as the paper’s Beijing bureau chief, he studied Mandarin Chinese. His writing about Germany won him the Anglo-German Foundation Journalism Prize in 1998.

Germany was also the topic of his first book, Along the Wall and Watchtowers, which chronicles a journey along the former Iron Curtain. His second book, Inside the Red Mansion, describes the epic search for Lai Changxing, China’s most wanted man.

August has appeared as a commentator on the BBC, NPR, CNN and CNBC. Currently, he resides in Damascus, Syria, studying Arabic and reporting on the Arab world.