Simon Jonathan Sebag Montefiore is a British journalist, historian, and
award-winning author of popular history books.
Family His father was Stephen Eric Sebag
Montefiore and his brother is Hugh Sebag Montefiore. They are descended from a
line of wealthy Sephardi Jews who were diplomats and bankers all over Europe
and who originated from Morocco and Italy. At the start of the 19th century,
his 4*great-uncle, Sir Moses Montefiore, became a banking partner of N M
Rothschild & Sons. His mother, Phyllis April Jaffé, comes
from a Lithuanian Jewish family of scholars. Her parents fled the Russian
Empire at the turn of the 20th century. They bought tickets for New York City,
but were cheated, being instead dropped off at Cork, Ireland. Due to the
Limerick Boycott in 1904 his grandfather Henry Jaffé left the country and moved
to Newcastle, England, but his great-grandfather and his
great-great-grandfather remained in Limerick.
Early life Montefiore was educated at Ludgrove
School, Harrow School, and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he read
history. He won an Exhibition to Caius College, but he was "a terrible
disappointment" academically and didn't get a First. "I didn't do a day's work
the whole time I was there. I don't know what came over me. I spent a lot of time
just chatting. Terrible." He went on to work as a banker and foreign affairs
journalist. Writing career
Montefiore's books have been world best-sellers, published in 33 languages.
His first history book, Catherine the Great & Potemkin, was shortlisted for
the Samuel Johnson, Duff Cooper, and Marsh Biography Prizes. Stalin: The
Court of the Red Tsar won the now defunct History Book of the Year at the
2004 book publishing industry British Book Awards. Young Stalin won the LA
Times Book Prize for Best Biography, the Costa Book Award, the Bruno Kreisky
Award for Political Literature, the Prix de la Biographie Politique and was
shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize; Miramax Films and Ruby
Films have bought the rights and are currently developing a movie based on
it. His novel, Sashenka, set in twentieth
century Russia, appeared in 2008. His latest history book is Jerusalem: the
Biography, a fresh history of the Middle East. He is a Fellow of the Royal
Society of Literature. Personal life
He lives in London with his wife, the novelist Santa Montefiore, and their two
children. His father-in-law is the Anglo-Argentine landowner Charles
Palmer-Tomkinson, and his sister-in-law is the socialite Tara Palmer-Tomkinson.
His friends include Prince Charles, British prime minister David Cameron and
Koo Stark. Books
Non Fiction Jerusalem: The Biography, 2011 ISBN
978-0-297-85265-0 101 World Heroes, 2009
Monsters – History's most evil men and women, 2008
Young Stalin, 2007 Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar, 2005,
2004 ISBN 1-4000-4230-5 ISBN 978-1400042302
Potemkin: Catherine the Great's Imperial Partner, 2005Catherine the Great and
Potemkin, 2004 Speeches that Changed the World: The
Stories and Transcripts of the Moments that Made History, 2008, 2007Speeches
that Changed the World, 2007 Piggy Foxy and the Sword of Revolution:
Bolshevik Self-Portraits with Alexander Vatlin, Larisa Malashenko and Vadim A.
Staklo, 2006 A History of Caucasus, 2005 ISBN
0-297-81925-9 ISBN 978-0297819257 Fiction
One Night in Winter, 2013 Sashenka, 2008
My Affair with Stalin, 2004 King's Parade, 1992
Television Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City 3
part series 8 December 2011 – 23 December 2011
Rome: A History of the Eternal City 3 part series 5 December - 19 December
2012 Byzantium: A Tale of Three Cities 3 part
series 5 December 2013 – 19 December 2013
CDs Speeches that Changed The World
DVDs Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City,
BBC, 2011 Byzantium and the History of Faith
Notes and references External links
Author website Appearances on C-SPAN
Part One Booknotes interview with Montefiore on Stalin: The Court of the
Red Tsar, 20 June 2004 Part Two of Booknotes interview with
Montefiore, 27 June 2004 [[Category:British people of Moroccan
descent]