Martin Sixsmith is a British journalist, author, and television/radio presenter. He joined the BBC in 1980 and worked as a foreign correspondent, reporting from Moscow prior to the end of the Cold War. Sixsmith's tenure at the BBC also included reporting from Poland during the Solidarity uprising and serving as the BBC's Washington correspondent during the election and first presidency of Bill Clinton. He was based in Russia for five years, the US for four, Brussels for four, and Poland for three.
After leaving the BBC in 1997, Sixsmith worked for the newly elected government of Tony Blair as Director of Communications. He then became a Director of GEC plc, where he oversaw the rebranding of the company as Marconi plc. In December 2001, Sixsmith returned to the Civil Service to join the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions as Director of Communications. He became embroiled in the scandal over Jo Moore, who had suggested that a controversial announcement should be "buried" during the media coverage of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Sixsmith incurred the displeasure of Downing Street when his email advising Byers and Moore not to bury more bad news was leaked to the press. He was expected to write a memoir or autobiography in the wake of his civil service departure, but was gagged by the government. Instead, he produced a novel about near-future politics called Spin, published in 2004. His second novel, I Heard Lenin Laugh, was published in 2005.