Simon Sebag Montefiore Interviewed by Matthew Stadlen

Prizewinning historian, novelist and broadcaster Simon Sebag Montefiore takes a journey through the history of the world and a range of characters from leaders such as Alexandra the Great, Hitler and Obama to creatives such as Shakespeare, Mozart and Bowie.

Montefiore treats the world’s history on both a grand and intimate scale. He links the grand themes of war, migration, plague, religion, medicine and technology to the people at the centre of the human drama. Many of those people are lesser known, including Hongwu, who began life as a beggar and founded the Ming dynasty, and Sayyida al-Hurra, the Moroccan pirate-queen.

‘A staggering achievement. Montefiore has given us a tremendous gift: a pulsingly readable world history through the millennia and from one end of the globe to the other’ Simon Schama

Sebag Montefiore’s bestselling books have been published in 40 languages and include 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 series for the BBC including Jerusalem: Making of a Holy City, Rome: History of the Eternal City, and Byzantium: A Tale of Three Cities. Sebag Montefiore is also a successful historical novelist, including of Red Sky at Noon, the third part of his award-winning Moscow trilogy. Here he talks to former LBC radio host and BBC presenter Matthew Stadlen.