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Bestselling historian and broadcaster Dr Simon Sebag Montefiore tells how one family turned a war-ruined principality into one of the world’s greatest empires and how their influence is still felt in modern Russia.

Sebag Montefiore tells the story of 20 tsars and tsarinas who ruthlessly built a holy empire but whose lives were overshadowed by palace conspiracies, family rivalries, sexual decadence and wild extravagance. Six of the tsars were murdered and all of them lived in fear for their lives. The cast includes Peter the Great, who tortured his own son to death, Catherine the Great, who overthrew her own husband and was murdered shortly after, and Rasputin. Sebag Montefiore draws on new archival research for a work that is both a universal study of power and a portrait of an empire that continues to define Russia today.

Sebag Montefiore’s bestselling books have been published in 40 languages and include Stalin: the Court of the Red Tsar, winner of the History Book of the Year, and Young Stalin, winner of the Costa Biography award. Jerusalem: the Biography was a number one bestseller and winner of the Jewish Book of the Year prize. He has written and presented a number of series for the BBC including Jerusalem: Making of a Holy City, Rome: History of the Eternal City and Byzantium: A Tale of Three Cities.

Here he talks to journalist and former BBC producer Matthew Stadlen, who is a regular interviewer for the Daily Telegraph and has interviewed for the BBC.