Allan Little is an award-winning Scottish journalist and presenter who has reported from more than 80 countries including a variety of war zones, revolutions and natural disasters. After graduating from the University of Edinburgh, Mr Little joined BBC Scotland as a news and current affairs researcher before moving to London to train as a radio reporter. He specialised in foreign reporting for BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, including accounts from the revolutions of 1989 across Eastern Europe. He then worked as a reporter for BBC News, reporting from hostile environments such as the 1991 Gulf War, Kuwait, former Yugoslavia, South Africa, Rwanda and Zaire. Mr Little also worked as the BBC Moscow correspondent and reported on the 1995 Afghanistan earthquakes before becoming the BBC’s Africa and later, Paris correspondent. He has won several awards, including three Gold Sony Radio Academy Awards for Reporter of the Year, the Bayeux War Correspondent of the Year, and in 2012 he won both the Thomas Reuters prize for Reporting Europe for his Radio 4 documentary, Europe’s Choice and the Charles Wheeler Award for Outstanding Contribution to Broadcast Journalism. Mr Little left the BBC in 2014 and today chairs the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Events participated in:

Year in the Life of Humza Yousaf: Humza Yousaf MSP talks to Allan Little about his fourteen months as Scotland’s First Minister and the impact of the ongoing conflict in Gaza has had on his family, him and his thinking, as well as his thoughts on the rise of the far-right in Europe. (2024)

Britain and International Security: Allan Little quizzes the Former Head of the Special Boat Service, Col Graham Cundy, and Channel 4 Foreign Affairs Editor, Lindsey Hilsum, about Britain’s interventions in conflicts around the world. (2023)

The World and All That It Holds: Join Allan Little and celebrated author Aleksandar Hemon as they explore his new novel The World and All That it Holds, which takes the reader on a mesmerising journey from Sarajevo to Shanghai. They will also reflect onthe former Yugoslavia 25 years on. (2023)

Resistance!: Watch Allan Little as he talks to the jail mate of Nelson Mandela and former PM of the Western Cape, Ebrahim Rasool, Professor Christina Murray who helped draft the South African Constitution, and South African artist, Peter Sacks, as they talk about South Africa, and the concept of resistance and renewal, in the context of Sack’s extraordinary multi-dimensional exhibition, Resistance, at Summerhall Arts, featuring 54 resistance figures from across the globe over the last 120 years. In celebration of BBC correspondent George Alagiah and his most recent book Burning Land. (2023)

From the Basque to the Big Country: Where Now for Democratic Politics in Europe?: Join Allan Little as he talks to Urko Aiartza Azurtza, Merryn Somerset Webb, and Gerry Hassan about how to deal with populism and demands for constitutional change in Europe. Tim Phillips gives a US perspective. (2022)

The Rise of the Festival: Listen to Hay, Edinburgh, and Jaipur Festival Chairs Caroline Michel, Allan Little, and William Dalrymple, as they discuss the rise of the festival and power of the spoken word with Oscar Guardiola-Rivera and Colin Grant. (2022)

Dispatches from Kabul: Join Allan Little with Eldridge Adolfo, Advisor to the EU Envoy to Afghanistan, Afghan rights campaigner Samina Ansari, Beyond Borders Fellow Mariam Safi, and William Dalrymple, as they discuss the crisis in Afghanistan. (2021)

Scotland’s Foreign Policy Footprint: Join Stephen Gethins, author of Nation to Nation and former UK Permanent Representative to NATO Mariot Leslieas they explore Scotland’s foreign policy footprint. Allan Little asks the questions. (2021)

Divided Societies: Watch Allan Little as he talks to novelist Elif Shafak about her book How to Stay Sane in the Age of Division and writer Sarah Helm as theyreveal the truth about divided societies, including in Turkey and Gaza. (2021)

Beyond Brexit: Listen as First Minister Nicola Sturgeon gives her take on Brexit and the new emerging political landscape in Scotland, the United Kingdom, and beyond. Allan Little asks the questions. Mark Muller Stuart QC introduces. (2019)

Pathways to Peace: Bettany Hughes returns to Traquair House to take the long view of historical pathways to peace to ask what might healing and reconciliation look like in today’s world? Allan Little asks the questions. (2019)

The Scottish Clearances: A History of the Dispossessed: Join Allan Little as he talks to historian Professor Sir Tom Devine about his latest book The Scottish Clearances, and explores the history of Scotland’s immigrant communities from World War Two to the present day. (2019)

Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House: Join Allan Little as he interrogates Valerie Plame about her life as a CIA agent and the scandal that surrounded her exposure as a spy, in a story that shed astonishing light on a world that was supposed to remain hidden. (2018)

The New York Times: Hard Truths: Join Jodi Rudoren, Associate Managing Editor of The New York Times and Iranian photo journalist Newsha Tavakolianas they talk about the importance of photojournalism in bearing witness to global economic and political atrocities around the world with Allan Little. (2018)

Moscow and Washington Calling: Listen as Allan Little talks to Angus Roxburgh about Russia and his memoirs Moscow Calling, and to Salman Ahmed about the National Security approaches taken by Presidents Obama and Trump. (2017)

A Diplomatic Affair: Listen to veteran UN Diplomat and Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura as he talks to Allan Little about his life, and find out why he painted camels blue in Sudan. (2016)

This Orient Isle: Allan Little talks to Renaissance Professor Jerry Brotton about his latest book, taking a tour of the cultural and political relationships between Elizabethan England & the Islamic World. (2016)

Srebrenica Remembered: Scottish Conservatives leader and former journalist Ruth Davidson talks to foreign correspondents Allan Little and Kate Adie about the conflict in Bosnia and asks whether the international community has learnt anything over the last twenty years about reporting on and preventing genocide. (2015)

An Audience with the Most Influential Woman in Britain: Spend an hour with Nicola Sturgeon, one of the most remarkable women in politics, as she talks about her life, and her hopes and fears for Scotland and the UK. (2015)

Jim Naughtie: The Madness of July: Drop by for a chat with Jim Naughtie, when Allan Little asks him about his new spy thriller The Madness of July. (2014)

City of Peace, City of Blood: Join Allan Little as he quizzes author and adventurer Justin Marozzi about his new book on Baghdad and what it is like to travel on awing and a prayer across the world’s fault lines in Afghanistan, Darfur, Libya and Somalia in the 21st Century. (2014)

Spies, Whistle-blowers and the NSA: Listen in when BBC Correspondent Allan Little talks to journalist and award-winning Guardian correspondent Luke Harding about his new book The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World’s Most Wanted Man. (2014)

Dispatches from the Most Dangerous Places on Earth: Join Allan Little as war photographer Paul Conroy gives a haunting account of coming under fire with Marie Colvin in Syria in 2011 while author James Fergusson explains why Somalia became one of the most dangerous places on earth. (2013)

Iraq 10 Years On: What Lessons for Syria and the UN: Join General Sir Mike Jackson, Chatham House’s Jane Kinninmont and Sir Kieran Prendergast as they come together to discuss the Iraq War and its impact on the U.N. and Syria. Allan Little presides. (2013)

Making Peace in South Africa: Join Allan Little in conversation with Former Secretary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, Paul Van Zyl, Co-Founder of the Project on Justice in Times of Transition, Tim Phillips and President de Klerk’s defence minister, Roelf Meyer as he recounts how he came to release Nelson Mandela to create the Rainbow Nation. (2012)

Journalists Under Fire: Join Allan Little as he talks to Channel 4 News International Editor and author of Sandstorm Lindsey Hilsum and photographer Guy Martin, who was injured in Libya while documenting the unfolding Arab Spring. Followed by a short drinks reception in memory of Marie, with the Marie Colvin Memorial Fund. (2012)

Zimbabwe at the Crossroads: Allan Little talks with Sir Kieran Prendergast, Mordecai Mahlungu, Petina Gappah and William Burdett-Coutts about the future of Zimbabwe. (2011)

Dispatches from the Darkside: Gareth Peirce in conversation with Allan Little about Guantánamo and the UK’s alleged complicity in torture. (2011)