‘Everyone in Westminster has been reading during these turbulent leadership times.

‘This magnificent portrait… Simon Sebag Montefiore has mined the rich veins of recent Russian writing on the Stalin age and of newly opened archives to give us an intimate history… The stifling, contiguous life of the Soviet elite in and around the Kremlin is wonderfully conveyed, in some of the most striking and literary passages in the book… Striking the balance between political narrative and personal biography is a difficult one… Montefiore keeps both in perspective… a wonderfully rich and vibrant portrait of the Stalinist elite who lived in the shadow of a remarkable and dangerous colossus’ Richard Overy, LITERARY REVIEW It is partly through his diligent interviews with the children of survivors and his admirable combination of history and gossip that one sees the awful banality, the brutal crudity of the men who carelessly sent so many millions to their senseless deaths’ Alistair Horne, THE TIMES ‘His masterful and terrifying account of Stalin… seldom has the picture been put in finer focus than by Sebag Montefiore. ‘This fascinating book… concentrates, as any good historian should, on pushing forward the boundaries of our knowledge of the subject… provides rich detail of daily life and family relationships in a world of human values turned inside out… scrupulously fair in the way he describes Stalin’s qualities – including his ability to charm, his uncanny grasp of geopolitical issues, his brilliant handling of foreign statesmen and his genuine passion for literature’ Antony Beevor, SUNDAY TIMES

‘This grim masterpiece, shot through with lashes of black humour… The personal details are riveting’ Antonia Fraser, MAIL ON SUNDAY How he managed to kill probably 30 or 40 million people and conceal it is unbelievable’ Alex Ferguson ‘The book I have enjoyed most over the past year was STALIN: THE COURT OF THE RED TSAR. ‘STALIN: THE COURT OF THE RED TSAR is one of the best biographies I have ever read in my life’ Shimon Peres A stunning performance’ Dr Henry Kissinger

‘I did not think I could learn anything new about Stalin but I was wrong. Book of the Year’ John Le Carré, OBSERVER ‘Montefiore’s STALIN… horrific, revelatory and sobering… triumph of research and should be required reading in Russia. ‘One of the two outstanding books of the year, STALIN by Simon Sebag Montefiore… was the most civilised and elegant chronicle of brutality and ruthlessness I have ever read, its prose cool and clear but never indifferent’ Ruth Rendell, DAILY TELEGRAPH ‘I loved the totalitarian high baroque sleaze of Montefiore’s Stalin.’ Simon Schama, Book of the Year, THE GUARDIAN

Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore