Simon Sebag Montefiore

Simon Sebag Montefiore wurde in London in einer berühmte englisch-jüdische Familie geboren. His brother Hugh Sebag-Montefiore is also a writer. They are descended from a line of wealthy Sephardi Jews who were diplomats and bankers thoughout Europe. At the start of the 19th century, his great-great-uncle, Sir Moses Montefiore, was an international financier who worked with the Rothschild bank and became a philanthropist. Simon was educated at Harrow School and read history at Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge, where he received his doctoral degree in philosophy. He has worked as a banker, a foreign affairs journalist, and a war correspondent covering the fall of the Soviet Union. His debut novel, King's Parade, was published in 1991. Since then he has alternated between fiction and nonfiction. His 2001 book Catherine the Great & Potemkin was short-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize, the Duff Cooper Prize, and the Marsh Biography Award. His next book Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar (2003) won History Book of the Year at the 2004 British Book Awards. Subsequent history/biography works have also won numerous awards. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Visiting Professor of Humanities at the University of Buckingham.
He is married to the novelist Santa Montefiore, with whom he has two children.