The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
In preparation for my meeting with Robert Harris (of course I’d read his latest novel, Act of Oblivion), I read a number of interviews and listened to his Desert Island Discs with Kirsty Young. 12 years old now, it is a fascinating and enlightening episode, and gave...
On the day I meet with Simon Sebag Montefiore to discuss his new book, The World: A Family History, the Russians have plundered the body of Prince Grigory Potemkin who was the subject of Sebag’s breakthrough book in 2001. Catherine the Great & Potemkin (Aspects of...
An expansive, enlightening, and entertaining history of some of humanity’s most interesting characters. The first thing worth mentioning about Simon Sebag-Montefiore’s The World is that it wholly delivers on the promise of its title and its synopsis. If you are by...
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Books Click on any of the books covers below to either buy or get more information on Amazon Articles Click on the links below to read the full article [dpdfg_filtergrid custom_query="advanced" use_taxonomy_terms="on" multiple_taxonomies="name_of_author"...
Friends! Brothers and sisters! Comrades! Fellow citizens! Your majesties and highnesses! My countrymen! My children! Fellow soldiers! Ladies and gentlemen! You can tell much by the opening of a speech. Elizabeth I begins hers majestically, ‘My loving people’. Mandela...
Voices of History: Speeches that Changed the World As we have discovered in January 2020, words matter. They matter even more when spoken by powerful men and women. I write this in the context of the dying days of Donald Trump’s presidency, when his words have incited...
Catherine the Great & Potemkin One of history's great couples - and love affairs - the story of Catherine and Potemkin is one of power, passion and politics - of both amorous and military conquests. Can you remember what first attracted you to the project? I think...
On October 4th, 1983, Simon Sebag-Montefiore and Scott Martin met the Prime Minister at Number 10. What were your feelings about the jingoism displayed by the tabloid press during the Falklands conflict? What would you describe as jingoism? It is a word which is...
June 2017 You are primarily a Russian historian and in 2016 published your book ‘The Romanovs’, the story of twenty tsars and tsarinas who were the most successful dynasty of modern times. Why did you write ‘Jerusalem: The Biography’ when all your other work is on...
