Russell Miller

Russell Miller (born c. 1938) is a British journalist and author of fifteen books, including biographies of Hugh Hefner, J. Paul Getty and L. Ron Hubbard.[1]

For the baseball player, see Russ Miller (baseball). For the American law professor, see Russell A. Miller.

Russell Miller
Bornc. 1938 (age 84–85)
London, United Kingdom
Occupation(s)Journalist,
Author
Awards

While under contract to The Sunday Times Magazine he won four press awards and was voted Writer of the Year by the Society of British Magazine Editors. His book Magnum: Fifty Years at the Front Line of History: The Story of the Legendary Photo Agency (1999) on Magnum Photos, was described by John Simpson as "the best book on photo-journalism I have ever read".[2] His oral histories of D-Day, Nothing Less Than Victory (1993), and the SOE, Behind The Lines (2002) were widely acclaimed, both in Britain and in the United States.[2]

Life and work

Miller was born in east London and began his career in journalism at the age of sixteen.[2]

In the early 1980s, Miller decided to write a biographical trilogy on the subjects of sex, money, and religion. The books that followed were Bunny (on Hugh Hefner, published in 1984), The House of Getty (on J. Paul Getty, 1985), and Bare-faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard (on L. Ron Hubbard, 1987).

L. Ron Hubbard biography
Main article: Bare-faced Messiah

In the 1980s Miller spent two years researching Bare-faced Messiah, a posthumous biography of the science-fiction author who had founded Scientology.[3] The book challenges the official account of Hubbard's life and work promoted by the Church of Scientology[4] and it was serialised in The Sunday Times.

External video
video icon 2023 interview with Russell Miller covering his methods of investigating Hubbard for the book Bare-faced Messiah, the harassment and dirty tricks from the Church of Scientology and the lawsuits to stop publication of the book, and how different Scientology's hagiographic version of Hubbard is from what Miller found in the records.

While researching the book in the United States, Miller was spied upon. His friends and business associates also received visits from Scientologists and private detectives. Attempts were made to frame him for the murder of a London private detective, the murder of American singer Dean Reed in East Berlin and a fire in an aircraft factory.[4][5][6] Senior executives at publishers Michael Joseph, and at The Sunday Times, which serialised the book, received threatening phone calls and also a visit from private investigator Eugene Ingram, who worked for the Church.[3] Another private investigator, Jarl Grieve Einar Cynewulf, told The Sunday Times journalists that he had been offered "large sums of money" to find a link between Miller and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).[7]

Bibliography
  • The Resistance (1979)
  • The East Indiamen (1980)
  • The Commandos (1981)
  • Continents in Collision (1983)
  • The Soviet Air Force (1983)
  • Bunny (1984), a biography of Hugh Hefner.
  • The House of Getty (1985), a biography of J. Paul Getty.
  • Bare-faced Messiah (1987), a biography of L. Ron Hubbard.
  • Body and Soul: How to Succeed in Business and Change the World, with Anita Roddick (1992)
  • Nothing Less Than Victory: An Oral History of D-Day (1993)
  • Ten Days in May: The People's Story of VE Day (1995)
  • Magnum: Fifty Years at the Front Line of History: The Story of the Legendary Photo Agency (1999)
  • Behind The Lines: The Oral History of Special Operations in World War II (2002)
  • Codename Tricycle: The True Story of the Second World War's most extraordinary Double Agent (2004), a biography of Dušan Popov.
  • The Adventures of Arthur Conan Doyle: A Biography (2008)
  • Uncle Bill: the Authorised Biography of Field Marshal Sir William Slim of Burma (2013)
  • Boom: The Life of Viscount Trenchard, Father of the Royal Air Force (2016)

Awards

Television appearances

In his capacity as Hubbard's biographer, Miller appeared in three British television documentaries:

  • Facing South: The Cult Business broadcast on TVS (southern England regional TV), November 1987
  • The Big Story: Inside the Cult made by Carlton TV and broadcast on ITV, 13 July 1995
  • Scientology and Me broadcast on BBC One, 14 May 2007

References
  1. Campbell, Duncan (4 December 1987). "Bored to distraction". New Statesman. p. 32.
  2. "Russell Miller". Peters, Fraser & Dunlop. 2013. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  3. "Scientologists In Dirty Campaign To Stop Book". The Sunday Times. 18 October 1987. p. 7.
  4. Palmer, Richard (1 November 1987). "Cult threatens to sue on book". The Sunday Times.
  5. Welkos, Robert W. (November–December 1991). "Shudder into silence: The Church of Scientology doesn't take kindly to negative coverage". The Quill. Society of Professional Journalists: 36–38.
  6. Driscoll, Margarette; Steven Haynes (19 January 1997). "Hounded by the church of stars and hype". The Sunday Times.
  7. Palmer, Richard (8 November 1987). "Cult's private detective fires at journalists". The Sunday Times.
  8. "Sunday Times winning journalists". The Sunday Times. 10 June 1990.
  9. "Russell Miller". www.penguin.co.nz. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
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