In Georgia, where I spend much time, the democratically elected pro-western President Mikhail Saakashvili has been beleaguered by a riotous opposition which… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
Real stories - whether in pure fiction or historical - have a certain indefinable power; we are endlessly curious about the past… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
Stalin had 15 scenic seaside villas, some of them czarist palaces, on the Black Sea coast of Abkhazia. In 2002, I visited… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
My wife Santa is a fanatical skier, going to Klosters many times a year. To please her, I have for 12 years… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
I'm not disciplined at all. I barely function. But I get a lot done. I take days off all the time, but… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
One of the strange things about doing publicity is that a mistake in a newspaper profile long ago is repeated and amplified… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
President Yeltsin's instincts were decent: he encouraged the marketplace, the press flourished, and everything started to open - even the KGB archives.… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
Historical fiction is simply fiction set in the past, and should be judged as such. — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
Every time I give an interview, I seem to offend somebody in my family, usually my mother. — 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
