Piers Bizony

PIERS BIZONY is an established author, documentary film maker and media producer based in the UK. His book Starman, a biography of Yuri Gagarin (co-authored with Jamie Doran) revealed controversial and often harrowing details of the early Soviet space effort. Atom, a tie-in for a BBC TV series, told the dramatic story of the rivalries and passions behind the discovery of quantum physics, while The Rivers of Mars, a critically acclaimed analysis of the life on Mars debate, was shortlisted for NASA’s Eugene M. Emme Award for Astronautical Writing. Bizony also created a major publishing project on the theme of digital special effects, based on the work of Digital Domain, the company founded by James Cameron, while Space: 50 was a similarly ambitious joint venture between the publishers HarperCollins Worldwide and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., marking the 50th anniversary of Sputnik. Another space-based book, The Man Who Ran the Moon, picked up rave reviews for its account of Apollo-era Washington politics. Working with an independent TV company near London, Bizony co-produced the world’s only TV documentary charting the production of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey for Channel 4. Narrated by Jim Cameron, and now featured on a Warner Brothers DVD, this documentary was based on Bizony’s award-winning books on the making of that landmark movie.