Philip Short (born on 17 April 1945) is an English journalist. He studied at Queens' College, Cambridge. After his graduation, he spent from 1967 to 1973 as a freelance journalist, first in Malawi, then in Uganda. He then joined the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) as a foreign correspondent. He is an author of many books, such as biographies of Mao Zedong, "Mao: A Life", and of Pol Pot, "Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare".