SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE is a historian of Russia and the Middle East whose books have been published in more than 40 languages. His book Catherine the Great & Potemkin: The Imperial Love Affair was short-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction (now known as The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction); Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar won the History Book of the Year prize at the British Book Awards; and Young Stalin was awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for biography, the Costa Biography Award, and le Grand Prix de la biographie politique. Montefiore received his Ph.D. from Cambridge, and he is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He lives in London.