This week’s guest is acclaimed historian Adam Zamoyski, biographer of Napoleon and the author of 1812: Napoleon’s Fatal March on Moscow He chats with our editor about the build up to the invasion, Napoleon and his opponent, Alexander I of Russia. The state of the French army on the advance and retreat, and the horrors the troops on both sides went through.

On Monday, in a bonus episode, Adam talks about Russia’s relationship with its neighbours, and the army both now and in 1812 and in the Soviet era.