Tessa Dunlop

Dunlop attended Strathallan public school in Perthshire after Pitlochry High School, Scotland[1] and read history at St Hilda's College, Oxford University, where she won the 1995 Gertrude Easton Prize for History.[2] She also studied at Sheffield Hallam University and was awarded an MA in Imperialism and Culture and a PhD in Romanian-British history and royal imaging.[3]

After graduating, Dunlop chased a media career, landing work at London radio station LBC and BBC London 94.9.[4]

She was named Regional Television Personality in the Royal Television Society's West of England Awards in 2005 for her work on the regional magazine show Inside Out West.[5] In 2007 Dunlop filmed Paranormal Egypt, an eight-part series with Derek Acorah on location in Egypt.

In 2005, Dunlop married "Vlad", a Romanian former student whom she first met when he was twelve and she was his teacher in Romania. She had made it her mission to help him to come study in the UK. They got together when he was only 17 and eventually married. They have two daughters, Maria and Elena.[6]

Dunlop's first book, To Romania with Love, a memoir set in post-revolution Romania about how she met her future husband, was published in May 2012.[7] Several further history books written by her have been published, most recently Army Girls.[8]

• Tessa Dunlop (2021). Army Girls: The secrets and stories of military service from the final few women who fought in World War II. London: Headline Press. ISBN 978-1472282095.
• Tessa Dunlop (2018). The Century Girls: The Final Word from the Women Who've Lived the Past Hundred Years of British History. London: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1471161322.
• Tessa Dunlop (2015). The Bletchley Girls: War, secrecy, love and loss: the women of Bletchley Park tell their story. London: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 978-1444795714.
• Tessa Dunlop (2012). To Romania With Love. London: Quartet Books. ISBN 978-0704372573.