Simon Sebag Montefiore

The Romanovs were the most successful dynasty of modern times, ruling a sixth of the world's surface. How did one family turn a war-ruined principality into the world's greatest empire? And how did they lose it all? This is the intimate story of twenty tsars and tsarinas, some touched by genius, some by madness, but all inspired by holy autocracy and imperial ambition. Montefiore's gripping chronicle reveals their secret world of unlimited power and ruthless empire-building, overshadowed by palace conspiracy, family rivalries, sexual decadence and wild extravagance, and peopled by a cast of adventurers, courtesans, revolutionaries and poets, from Ivan the Terrible to Tolstoy, from Queen Victoria to Lenin. To rule Russia was both imperial-sacred mission and poisoned chalice: six tsars were murdered and all the Romanovs lived under constant threat to their lives. Peter the Great tortured his own son to death while making Russia an empire, and dominated his court with a dining club notable for compulsory drunkenness, naked dwarfs and fancy dress. Catherine the Great overthrew her own husband - who was murdered soon afterwards - loved her young male favourites, conquered Ukraine and fascinated Europe. Paul was strangled by courtiers backed by his own son, Alexander I, who faced Napoleon's invasion and the burning of Moscow, then went on to take Paris. Alexander II liberated the serfs, survived five assassination attempts, and wrote perhaps the most explicit love letters ever written by a ruler. THE ROMANOVS climaxes with a fresh, unforgettable portrayal of Nicholas and Alexandra, the rise and murder of Rasputin, war and revolution - and the harrowing massacre of the entire family. Written with dazzling literary flair, drawing on new archival research, THE ROMANOVS is at once an enthralling story of triumph and tragedy, love and death, a universal study of power, and an essential portrait of the empire that still defines Russia today.

1613-1918

The Romanovs

Jerusalem is the universal city, the capital of two peoples, the shrine of three faiths; it is the prize of empires, the site of Judgement Day and the battlefield of today's clash of civilisations. From King David to Barack Obama, from the birth of Judaism, Christianity and Islam to the Israel-Palestine conflict, this is the epic history of 3,000 years of faith, slaughter, fanaticism and coexistence. How did this small, remote town become the Holy City, the 'centre of the world' and now the key to peace in the Middle East? In a gripping narrative, Simon Sebag Montefiore reveals this ever-changing city in its many incarnations, bringing every epoch and character blazingly to life. Jerusalem's biography is told through the wars, love affairs and revelations of the men and women - kings, empresses, prophets, poets, saints, conquerors and whores - who created, destroyed, chronicled and believed in Jerusalem. As well as the many ordinary Jerusalemites who have left their mark on the city, its cast varies from Solomon, Saladin and Suleiman the Magnificent to Cleopatra, Caligula and Churchill; from Abraham to Jesus and Muhammad; from the ancient world of Jezebel, Nebuchadnezzar, Herod and Nero to the modern times of the Kaiser, Disraeli, Mark Twain, Rasputin and Lawrence of Arabia. Drawing on new archives, current scholarship, his own family papers and a lifetime's study, Montefiore illuminates the essence of sanctity and mysticism, identity and empire in a unique story of the city that many believe will be the setting for the Apocalypse. This is how Jerusalem became Jerusalem: the only city that exists twice - in heaven and on earth.

The Biography

Jerusalem

Winner of the British Book Awards History Book of the Year Longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize This thrilling biography of Stalin and his entourage during the terrifying decades of his supreme power transforms our understanding of Stalin as Soviet dictator, Marxist leader and Russian tsar. Based on groundbreaking research, Simon Sebag Montefiore reveals in captivating detail the fear and betrayal, privilege and debauchery, family life and murderous cruelty of this secret world. Written with extraordinary narrative verve, this magnificent feat of scholarly research has become a classic of modern history writing. Showing how Stalin's triumphs and crimes were the product of his fanatical Marxism and his gifted but flawed character, this is an intimate portrait of a man as complicated and human as he was brutal and chilling.

The Court of the Red Tsar

Stalin

In early twentieth-century Russia, Sashenka Zeitlin becomes caught up in the revolutionary fervor destined to bring down the czar, as she deals with arrest and imprisonment, the bloody battles that engulf the country under Stalin, and a forbidden love aff

Sashenka

The acclaimed novelist and prizewinning historian Simon Sebag Montefiore explores the consequences of forbidden love in this heartbreaking epic, inspired by a true story that unfolds in Stalin's Russia during the bleak days after World War II. A jubilant Moscow is celebrating the Soviet Union's victory over Hitler when gunshots ring out though the city's crowded streets. In the shadow of the Kremlin, a teenage boy and girl are found dead. But this is no ordinary tragedy, because these are no ordinary teenagers. As the children of high-ranking Soviet officials, they inhabit a rarefied world that revolves around the exclusive Josef Stalin Commune School 801. The school, which Stalin's own children attended, is an enclave of privilege—but, as the deaths reveal, one that hides a wealth of secrets. Were these deaths an accident, a suicide pact . . . or murder? Certain that a deeper conspiracy is afoot, Stalin launches a ruthless investigation. In what comes to be known as the Children's Case, youths from all over Moscow are arrested by state security services and brought to the infamous interrogation rooms of the Lubyanka, where they are forced to testify against their friends and their families. Among the casualties of these betrayals are two pairs of illicit lovers, who find themselves trapped at the center of Stalin's witch hunt. As the Children's Case follows its increasingly terrifying course, these couples discover that the decision to follow one's heart comes at a terrible price. A haunting evocation of a time and place in which the state colluded to corrupt and destroy every dream, One Night in Winter is infused with the desperate intrigue of a political thriller. The eminent historian Simon Sebag Montefiore weaves fact and fiction into a richly compelling saga of sacrifice and survival, populated by real figures from the past. But within the darkness shines a deeply human love story, one that transcends its moment as it masterfully explores our capacity for loyalty and forgiveness.

A Novel

One Night in Winter

INCLUDES NEW MATERIAL WRITTEN IN HISTORY celebrates the great letters of world history, creative culture and personal life. Acclaimed historian Simon Sebag Montefiore selects over one hundred letters from ancient times to the twenty-first century: some are noble and inspiring, some despicable and unsettling; some are exquisite works of literature, others brutal, coarse and frankly outrageous; many are erotic, others heartbreaking. The writers vary from Elizabeth I, Rameses the Great and Leonard Cohen to Emmeline Pankhurst, Mandela, Stalin, Michelangelo, Suleiman the Magnificent and unknown people in extraordinary circumstances - from love letters to calls for liberation, declarations of war to reflections on death. In the colourful, accessible style of a master storyteller, Montefiore shows why these letters are essential reading: how they enlighten our past, enrich the way we live now - and illuminate tomorrow.

Letters that Changed the World

Written in History

From the master storyteller and internationally bestselling author - the story of humanity from prehistory to the present day, told through the one thing all humans have in common: family. We begin with the footsteps of a family walking along a beach 950,000 years ago. From here, Montefiore takes us on an exhilarating epic journey through the families that have shaped our world: the Caesars, Medicis and Incas, Ottomans and Mughals, Bonapartes, Habsburgs and Zulus, Rothschilds, Rockefellers and Krupps, Churchills, Kennedys, Castros, Nehrus, Pahlavis and Kenyattas, Saudis, Kims and Assads. A rich cast of complex characters form the beating heart of the story. Some are well-known leaders, from Alexander the Great, Attila, Ivan the Terrible and Genghis Khan to Hitler, Thatcher, Obama, Putin and Zelensky. Some are creative, from Socrates, Michelangelo and Shakespeare to Newton, Mozart, Balzac, Freud, Bowie and Tim Berners-Lee. Others are lesser-known: Hongwu, who began life as a beggar and founded the Ming dynasty; Kamehameha, conqueror of Hawaii; Zenobia, Arab empress who defied Rome; King Henry of Haiti; Lady Murasaki, first female novelist; Sayyida al-Hurra, Moroccan pirate-queen. Here are not just conquerors and queens but prophets, charlatans, actors, gangsters, artists, scientists, doctors, tycoons, lovers, wives, husbands and children. This is world history on the most grand and intimate scale - spanning centuries, continents and cultures, and linking grand themes of war, migration, plague, religion, medicine and technology to the people at the centre of the human drama. As spellbinding as fiction, The World captures the story of humankind in all its joy, sorrow, romance, ingenuity and cruelty in a ground-breaking, single narrative that will forever shift the boundaries of what history can achieve.

The World

‘An epic adventure story set against the most awful war in history. Ridiculously good’ Dan Snow 'The black earth was already baking and the sun was just rising when they mounted their horses and rode across the grasslands towards the horizon on fire ...’ Imprisoned in the Gulags for a crime he did not commit, Benya Golden joins a penal battalion made up of Cossacks and convicts to fight the Nazis. He enrols in the Russian cavalry, and on a hot summer day in July 1942, he and his band of brothers are sent on a desperate mission behind enemy lines. Switching between Benya's war in the grasslands of Southern Russia, and Stalin's plans in the Kremlin, between Benya's intense affair with an Italian nurse and a romance between Stalin's daughter and a journalist also on the Eastern Front, this is a sweeping story of passion, bravery and human survival where personal betrayal is a constant companion, and death just a heartbeat away. Praise for Red Sky at Noon 'Red Sky at Noon is an epic adventure story set against the backdrop of the most awful war in human history. The master historian shape-shifting into the brilliant novelist. Ridiculously good’. Dan Snow 'Mythic and murderous violence in Russia...there are power-drunk Nazis and Soviet traitors, including a particularly memorable villain ...Written with brio & deep knowledge of its fascinating subject matter... a deeply satisfying pageturner.' - Book of the Month, The Times 'In this third volume of The Moscow Trilogy, the fate of combatants and civilians is often harsh. With his feel for vivid and immediate drama and impressive research, the author evokes the extreme turbulence and violence impacting on individuals. Writing with passion, Montefiore makes the point that, up against the huge forces of war, the struggle for personal resolution can be tragic - but never wasted.' - Daily Mail 'The final instalment of Montefiore's loosely connected Moscow Trilogy: amidst the killing and the chaos, a group of prisoners are offered a chance of redemption on a secret mission behind enemy lines on horseback. Montefiore has a keen sense of place and an eye of unexpected details. Switching between the frontline on the Russian steppes and Stalin in the Kremlin, this is an EXCITING FAST-PACED ADVENTURE AND A LAMENT FOR LOVE IN DARK AND BRUTAL TIMES.' - Mail on Sunday 'I devoured Red Sky at Noon. A heartstopping, heartbreaking, technicolour epic. A grand homage to the Russian masters Babel & Grossman, echoes of Hemingway & Dostoevsky, and a propulsive delight that is entirely Montefiore's own. Gripping storytelling allied with intimate, unsqueamish knowledge of Russian history - a special combination.' - AD Miller, author of Snowdrops 'The gripping final instalment of the Moscow Trilogy tells of a man wrongly imprisoned in the Gulags and his fight for redemption. Love in dark times, meticulously researched... In this searing tale of love and war, most moving is the redemptive relationship between a soldier and a nurse that blooms amid the brutality. An homage to the author's favourite Russian writers and the Western masterpieces of Larry McMurtry, Cormac McCarthy and Elmore Leonard, such influences pervade this atmospheric tale told in the author's distinct own voice.' - Observer

Red Sky at Noon

Os Romanov foram a mais bem-sucedida dinastia dos tempos modernos. Como foi possível uma família transformar um reino débil e arruinado, devido à guerra civil, no maior império do mundo? E como deitaram tudo a perder? Esta é a história de vinte czares e czarinas, alguns tocados pelo génio, outros pela loucura, mas todos inspirados pela sagrada autocracia e ambição imperial. Esta arrebatadora narrativa revela de forma magistral a família Romanov - o seu mundo secreto de poder ilimitado, a implacável construção de um império, ensombrado por conspirações palacianas, rivalidades familiares, assassinatos, decadência e excessos sexuais, a influência dos cortesãos, aventureiros, revolucionários e poetas. Baseado numa aprofundada pesquisa de arquivos a que nunca tinha havido acesso, esta é uma obra fascinante e indispensável para conhecer a história empolgante de triunfo e de tragédia, de amor e de morte - um estudo universal do poder e um retrato essencial do império que ainda define a Rússia atual. Uma obra de leitura obrigatória que a Presença publica em dois volumes.

Os Romanov -

From the New York Times best-selling author of The Romanovs—a magisterial world history unlike any other that tells the story of humanity through the one thing we all have in common: families Around 950,000 years ago, a family of five walked along the beach and left behind the oldest family footprints ever discovered. For award-winning historian Simon Sebag Montefiore, these poignant, familiar fossils serve as an inspiration for a new kind of world history, one that is genuinely global, spans all eras and all continents, and focuses on the family ties that connect every one of us. In this epic, ever-surprising book, Montefiore chronicles the world’s great dynasties across human history through palace intrigues, love affairs, and family lives, linking grand themes of war, migration, plague, religion, and technology to the people at the heart of the human drama. It features a cast of extraordinary diversity: in addition to rulers and conquerors, there are priests, charlatans, artists, scientists, tycoons, gangsters, lovers, husbands, wives and children. There is Hongwu, the beggar who founded the Ming dynasty; Ewuare, the Leopard-King of Benin; Henry Christophe, King of Haiti; Kamehameha, the conqueror of Hawaii; Zenobia, the Arab empress who defied Rome; Lady Murasaki, the first female novelist; Sayyida al-Hurra, the Moroccan pirate-queen. Here too are moderns such as Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher, Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky. Here are the Caesars, Medicis and Incas, Ottomans and Mughals, Bonapartes, Habsburgs and Zulus, Rothschilds, Rockefellers and Krupps, Churchills, Kennedys, Castros, Nehrus, Pahlavis and Kenyattas, Saudis, Kims and Assads. These powerful families represent the breadth of human endeavor, with bloody succession battles, treacherous conspiracies, and shocking megalomania alongside flourishing culture, moving romances, and enlightened benevolence. A dazzling achievement as spellbinding as fiction, The World captures the whole human story in a single, masterful narrative.

A Family History of Humanity

Bir Sehrin Biyografisi

Kudüs

Santa Montefiore

The adventure begins for brave little Shylo and his Royal Rabbit friends in this charming series from bestselling authors Santa Montefiore and Simon Sebag Montefiore and illustrator Kate Hindley, that proves even the smallest rabbit can be the biggest hero. Life is an adventure. Anything in the world is possible – by will and by luck, with a moist carrot, a wet noise and a slice of mad courage! Shylo has always been the runt of the litter, the weakest and quietest of all of his family. His siblings spend their days making fun of him for not being like the rest of them. But when Shylo stumbles across a band of ratzis and overhears their evil plan to take a photo of the Queen in her nightie, it's up to this unlikely hero to travel to London and inform the Royal Rabbits of London about the diabolical plot! The Royal Rabbits have a proud history of protecting the royal family and now the secret society need to leap into action to stop the ratzis... But can a rabbit as feeble and shy as Shylo convince them that Queen is in danger? Praise for The Royal Rabbits: ‘Packed with fun, fantasy and the sort of adventure guaranteed to have sticky little fingers hungrily turning the pages’ The Mail on Sunday ‘The Royal Rabbits is sweet, funny and beautifully illustrated' The Times

The Royal Rabbits

VOICES OF HISTORY celebrates the great speeches of world history and cultural life. In this exuberant collection, acclaimed historian Simon Sebag Montefiore takes us on a journey from ancient times to the twenty-first century: some speeches are heroic and inspiring; some diabolical and atrocious; some are exquisite and poignant; others cruel and chilling. The speakers themselves vary from empresses and conquerors to novelists, sportsmen, dreamers and killers, from Churchill and Elizabeth I to Stalin and Genghis Khan, and from Michelle Obama and Cleopatra to Nehru and Muhammad Ali. All human drama is here: from the carnage of battlefields to the theatre of courtrooms, from table-talk to audiences of millions, from desperate last stands to orations of triumph, from noble calls for liberation to genocidal rants, from foolish delusions and strange confessions to defiant resistance and heartbreaking farewells, VOICES OF HISTORY spans centuries, continents and cultures. In the accessible and gripping style of a master storyteller, Montefiore shows why these seventy speeches are essential reading, and how they enlighten our past, enrich our present and inspire - and hold warnings for - our future.

Speeches that Changed the World

Voices of History

Jerusalém

The preferred method of torture of Vlad Dracul, 15th-century prince of Wallachia, was to attach a horse to each of the victim's legs as a sharpened stake was gradually forced into his body; Vlad also enjoyed scalping, skinning and boiling alive. The 14th-century Mongol warlord Tamerlane once ordered the building of a pyramid of 70,000 human skulls from those that his army had beheaded... In 101 World Heroes Simon Sebag Montefiore selected his ultimate heroes and heroines. Now he offers his readers the other - darker - side of the coin. Monsters presents, in chronological order, grimly fascinating profiles of 101 notorious and profoundly sinister individuals whose actions have one thing in common - they have had a baleful and blood-soaked impact on the annals of world history. From Attila the Hun to Basil the Bulgar Slayer, from Pedro the Cruel to Ivan the Terrible, and from Richard III to Saddam Hussein, Monsters is a devilishly compelling gallery of history's greatest ghouls, including: Caligula, Richard III, Adolf Eichmann, Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, Charles Manson, Herman Cortes, Adolf Hitler, Al Capone, Laventi Beria, Lucrezia Borgia, Nicolae Ceausescu, Vlad the Impaler, Saddam Hussein, Simon de Montfort, Pablo Escobar, Ivan the Terrible, Genghis Khan, Idi Amin, Attila, Josef Mengele, Heinrich Himmler, Mao Zedong, Osama bin Laden, Kim Il Sung, Slobodan Milosevic, Empress Cixi, Tomas de Torquemeda.

History's Most Evil Men and Women

Monsters

De la autorul bestsellerurilor Ierusalim și Într-o noapte de iarnă. O poveste zguduitoare despre pasiune și trădare, descoperită în arhivele secrete KGB Iarna lui 1916: Sankt Petersburg. Rusia e în pragul revoluției. În fața Institutului Smolnîi pentru Fete din Înalta Societate, Sașenka, fiica de doar șaisprezece ani a baronului Zeitlin, este așteptată de către guvernanta sa, dar și de poliția secretă a Țarului... Frumoasă și aprigă, Sașenka este captivată de noua ideologie bolșevică și intră în jocul periculos al conspirației și seducției. Douăzeci de ani mai târziu, e căsătorită cu un membru de seamă al partidului comunist și are doi copii. Însă idila interzisă cu un scriitor are consecințe devastatoare pentru familia sa. „Această saga surprinde atât zbuciumul unei elite bolșevice căzute în dizgrație, cât și paradoxurile istoriei pe care avem impresia că o cunoaștem.“ – The Independent „Cu frumusețea ireală, cu distincția care trece dincolo de avere sau clasă socială și cu idealurile sale sincere care au costat-o atât de mult, Sașenka reușește să ne cucerească definitiv.“ – The Spectator „Montefiore se dovedește a fi un povestitor inegalabil, cu un stil precis, care te marchează.“ – Wall Street Journal „Pe coridoarele acestei aripi a închisorii era un du-te-vino continuu: bărbați și femei erau aruncați în celulele lor, aduși la interogatorii, trimiși în lunga călătorie din exilul siberian. Unii plângeau cu sughițuri, alții dormeau; întreg spectrul vieții era adunat aici. Jandarmul din spatele ghișeului își tot îndrepta privirea către Sașenka, de parcă aceasta ar fi fost un păun într-o cocină de porci.“

Sașenka

A book containing information on conquerors, poets, kings, empresses and psychopaths, prophets, composers and explorers who have changed our world.

Titans of History

A extraordinária vida de Sashenka — marcada por traições, atos heroicos, resistência e idealismo — emociona não só pela grande capacidade narrativa de Montefiore, mas porque reflete com perfeição o sentimento de assombro e esperança que tomou toda uma nova geração de russos quando os arquivos da KGB começaram a ser abertos. O jornalista e historiador Simon Sebag Montefiore conhece a história da Rússia como ninguém; seus livros sobre o tema se tornaram premiados best-sellers e já foram traduzidos para quase cinquenta idiomas. Na área da ficção, ele também se mostra um exímio autor. Neste romance histórico, Montefiore narra a trajetória de Sashenka durante os acontecimentos que culminaram na revolução bolchevique de 1917 até o Grande Terror stalinista, que vigorou nos anos 1930 e teve como um de seus alvos os próprios membros da burocracia estatal soviética e a alta cúpula do Partido Comunista. A Trilogia Moscou — iniciada por Sashenka, ao qual se seguem Céu vermelho ao meio-dia e Uma noite de inverno — conquistou o prêmio Paddy Power Political Novel e já foi publicada em quase trinta idiomas. “Quando consegui largar o livro, estava chorando.” — Vandra Bennett, The Times “Envolvente do início ao fim. A mistura perfeita de aula de história com uma narrativa eletrizante.” — Kate Mosse, autora de Labirinto “Um romance soberbo. Sashenka é inesquecível e inspirador. Montefiore se revela um contador de histórias incomparável.” — The Wall Street Journal

Simon Sebag Montefiore

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