Author Information:

Simon Sebag Montefiore is the internationally bestselling author of prize-winning history and novels. His latest books, just out in paperback, are VOICES OF HISTORY: SPEECHES THAT CHANGED THE WORLD and WRITTEN IN HISTORY: LETTERS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD. A new, updated, revised edition of JERUSALEM: THE BIOGRAPHY, the wider history of the Middle East through the lens of the Holy City, covering from pre-history to 2020, from King David to Donald Trump, is just out in paperback. Montefiore's history titles include: THE ROMANOVS, JERUSALEM: THE BIOGRAPHY, YOUNG STALIN, STALIN: THE COURT OF THE RED TSAR and CATHERINE THE GREAT & POTEMKIN as well as the anthologies of letters and speeches. He is the author of the Moscow Trilogy of novels: SASHENKA, RED SKY AT NOON and ONE NIGHT IN WINTER. Montefiore is also the author of a series of childrens' novels - ROYAL RABBITS OF LONDON - co-written with Santa Montefiore. Montefiore has won prizes for his works, both non-fiction and fiction. His novel, ONE NIGHT IN WINTER won the Best Political Novel of the Year Prize and was longlisted for the Orwell Prize. Among his history books, CATHERINE THE GREAT & POTEMKIN was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson, Duff Cooper, and Marsh Biography Prizes. 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 (UK), the LA Times Book Prize for Biography (USA), Le Grand Prix de la Biographie Politique (France) and the Kreisky Prize for Political Literature (Austria). JERUSALEM: THE BIOGRAPHY has now sold over a million cover internationally, was a global number 1 bestseller, number 1 in the Sunday Times non-fiction bestseller list for many weeks and won the Wenjin Book of the Year Prize (awarded by the Library of China in People's Republic of China) and the Book of the Year Prize from the Jewish Book Council (USA). THE ROMANOVS won the Lupicaia del Terriccio Literature Prize (Italy), was chosen as one of Oprah Winfrey's Books of the Year (USA) and has been a bestseller all over the world, including the UK, Australia, Brazil, Spain and the USA where it was in the New York Times bestseller list for eight weeks. Many of his books are now being developed as TV drama series or movies. Montefiore read history at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge University where he was awarded his Doctorate of Philosophy. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Visiting Professor at the University of Buckingham, Dr Montefiore has written and presented fiver BBC TV series including Jerusalem (2011); Rome (2012) and Istanbul/Constantinople - 'Byzantium: a tale of 3 cities' (2013); Spain - 'Blood & Gold' (2015) and Vienna (2016)