Russia's first major intervention began in 1768, when Catherine the Great went to war with the Ottomans, and Count Alexei Orlov, the brother of her lover Grigory, sailed the Baltic fleet through the Strait of Gibraltar to rally rebellions in… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
Writing fiction is very different to writing non-fiction. I love writing novels, but on history books, like my biographies of Stalin or Catherine the Great or Jerusalem, I spend endless hours doing vast amounts of research. But it ends up… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
Trump wants to be the first American tsar. With his hero worship of Putin, his admiration for the apparent omnipotence of the Kremlin, schoolboyish… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
“History is little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind." --- Edward Gibbon” — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
Every Russian emperor from Peter the Great to Stalin and Putin knows a leader and his security agencies must never be parted. His safety… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
“Sex fills a few hours of our lives yet those precious minutes count for more than months and years” — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
“Iraq was already in the grip of a bloody insurgency against British rule. Churchill therefore called a conference in Cairo to hand over a… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
I don't think Jerusalem should be controlled 100% by religious people of any denomination, sect, or religion - even my own. — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
The memoirs of the Grand Duchess Olga are an entertaining record for anyone interested in the imperial family's home life during the last years… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
I am a passionate nonfinisher. Life is too short, and there are too many great books to read, so if I lose interest or… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
There is a view of Russian exceptionalism, that they are a unique civilisation, a view right since Ivan the Terrible that Russia is a… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
The political lives of tyrants play out human affairs with a special intensity: the death of a democratic leader long after his retirement is… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
