Titans of History - Softcover

Simon Sebag Montefiore is a prizewinning historian whose bestselling books have been published in over forty-five languages. CATHERINE THE GREAT AND POTEMKIN was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize; STALIN: THE COURT OF THE RED TSAR won the History Book of the Year Prize at the British Book Awards; YOUNG STALIN won the Costa Biography Award, LA Times Biography Prize and Le Grand Prix de Biographie; JERUSALEM: THE BIOGRAPHY was a number one bestseller and won the Jewish Book Council's Book of the Year prize; THE ROMANOVS: 1613-1918 was an international bestseller and won the Lupicaia del Terriccio Book Prize. Montefiore is also the author of the acclaimed novels SASHENKA, RED SKY AT NOON and ONE NIGHT IN WINTER, which won the Paddy Power Political Fiction Book of the Year Award. He read history at Cambridge University where he received his PhD, and now lives in London with his wife, the novelist Santa Montefiore, and their two children. www.simonsebagmontefiore.com@simonmontefiorewww.facebook.com/pages/Simon-Sebag-Montefiore

A survey of great historical figures favours villainy over goodness ... A compilation of short biographical profiles ... catering to our appalled fascination with evil. Monsters outnumber heroes. Stalin, the subject of Montefiore's superb two-volume biography, is the prototype for many of the maniacal autocrats whose rages and rampages are described here. A strutting parade of psychopathic dictators, warlords, malevolent dwarves ... Montefiore finds room for a few gods, one or two secular saints, American founding fathers, Lincoln and Churchill, and a smattering artists and scientists, but their achievements hardly manage to maintain the pretence of civilisation. What excites Montefiore is villainy ... and he does this with wicked verve * OBSERVER * Compulsive reading ... We do not shudder at the depths to which men and women throughout history have sunk, but experience a piquant relish ... a book that reminds us how thin the veneer of civilisation is * THE TIMES * Comprehensive, chilling and highly compelling. A first-class chronologically arranged catalogue that enagages as it teaches * DAILY EXPRESS * Entertaining and informative. Full of offbeat, fascinating detail * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH * Sparkling biographical essays ... A tour of the good, the bad and the ugly * MAIL ON SUNDAY * Simon Sebag Montefiore is a master storyteller * EVENING STANDARD *