Alice Thomson is an award-winning columnist, interviewer and associate editor of The Times. A journalist at the paper for 30 years, she has covered revolutions in Eastern Europe, the break-up of Yugoslavia, genocide in Rwanda and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. At home she has focussed on the countryside and farming, education, health and housing. She has contributed to Vogue, The Spectator and the Financial Times and appears regularly on The Today Programme, Newsnight, Question Time and Any Questions.

Thomson’s book, The Singing Line, tells the story of an ancestor who built the telegraph line across Australia in the 19th century and named Alice Springs after his wife, she has also co-written What I Wish I’d Known, which includes many of her interviews. She lives in London and Devon where she is co-curator of The National Oak Collection.