'More compelling than any thriller, this award-winning biography is read with unflagging verve by John Nettles.'

'a marvellously racy, gossipy study, based on immense research.'

'Simon Sebag Montefiore's writing is caustic and superb and he wears his rigorous scholarship with style.'

'This book should help purge any lingering nostalgia for the USSR.'

There have been many biographies of Stalin, but the court that surrounded him is untravelled ground. Simon Sebag-Montefiore, acclaimed biographer of Catherine the Great's lover, prime minister and general, Potemkin, has unearthed the vast underpinning that sustained Stalin. Not only ministers such as Molotov or secret service chiefs such as Beria, but men and women whose loyalty he trusted only until the next purge. Here is the Stalin story from the inside, full of revelations. How the death of Stalin's wife was hushed up - was it suicide? How the Soviet leaders and their families lived and partied inside the Kremlin walls. What happened on the first day of war with Germany in 1941. The fullest account of the meeting between Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill that settled the fate of the axis powers. And how the Great Terror in which 10 million died actually happened. Robert Service (St Antony's, Oxford), former head of Russian history at the School of Slavonic Studies, U. of London: 'Simon Sebag Montefiore has pulled it off. His book succeeds in giving us an intimate picture of daily life in the Kremlin under Stalin. The arrests and killings are not ignored; indeed Montefiore supplies extra chapters and verses on the process by which the Soviet dictator moved against his enemies real and potential. An abundance of the sources are wholly new. The result is a gripping account. Stalin was a vengeful conspirator and a murderous leader. But he was also 'normal' in many ways. He was convivial, solicitous and even flirtatious. When he wanted, he could be quite a charmer. This duality has long been under-appreciated, but it helps to explain why Stalin was admired as well as feared by his associates - and indeed why his power endured. This is a fundamental theme and it is one of Montefiore's that he handles it with excitement and cogency.'

There have been many biographies of Stalin, but the court that surrounded him is untravelled ground. Simon Sebag-Montefiore, acclaimed biographer of Catherine the Great's lover, prime minister and general, Potemkin, has unearthed the vast underpinning that sustained Stalin. Not only ministers such as Molotov or secret service chiefs such as Beria, but men and women whose loyalty he trusted only until the next purge. Here is the Stalin story from the inside, full of revelations. How the death of Stalin's wife was hushed up - was it suicide? How the Soviet leaders and their families lived and partied inside the Kremlin walls. What happened on the first day of war with Germany in 1941. The fullest account of the meeting between Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill that settled the fate of the axis powers. And how the Great Terror in which 10 million died actually happened. Robert Service (St Antony's, Oxford), former head of Russian history at the School of Slavonic Studies, U. of London: 'Simon Sebag Montefiore has pulled it off. His book succeeds in giving us an intimate picture of daily life in the Kremlin under Stalin.The arrests and killings are not ignored; indeed Montefiore supplies extra chapters and verses on the process by which the Soviet dictator moved against his enemies real and potential.

An abundance of the sources are wholly new. The result is a gripping account. Stalin was a vengeful conspirator and a murderous leader. But he was also 'normal' in many ways. He was convivial, solicitous and even flirtatious. When he wanted, he could be quite a charmer. This duality has long been under-appreciated, but it helps to explain why Stalin was admired as well as feared by his associates - and indeed why his power endured. This is a fundamental theme and it is one of Montefiore's that he handles it with excitement and cogency.'

'Simon Sebag Montefiore has pulled it off. His book succeeds in giving us an intimate picture of daily life in the Kremlin under Stalin. A gripping account.' Robert Service Fifty years after his death, Stalin remains one of the creators of our world. The scale of his crimes has made him, along with Hitler, the very personification of evil. Yet while we know much about Hitler, Stalin and his regime remain mysterious. Now, in this enthralling history of Stalin's imperial court, the fear and betrayal, privilege and debauchery, family life and murderous brutality are brought blazingly to life. Who was the boy from Georgia who rose to rule the Empire of the Tsars? Who were his Himmler, Goring, Goebbels? How did these grandees rule? How did the 'top ten' families live? Exploring every aspect of this supreme politician, from his doomed marriage and mistresses, and his obsession with film, music and literature, to his identification with the Tsars, Simon Sebag Montefiore unveils a less enigmatic, more intimate Stalin, no less brutal but more human, and always astonishing. Stalin organised the deadly but informal game of power amongst his courtiers at dinners, dances, and singsongs at Black Sea villas and Kremlin apartments: a secret, but strangely cosy world with a dynamic, colourful cast of killers, fanatics, degenerates and adventurers. From the murderous bisexual dwarf Yezhov to the depraved but gifted Beria, each had their role: during the Second World War, Stalin played the statesman with Churchill and Roosevelt aided by Molotov while, with Marshal Zhukov, he became the triumphant warlord. They lived on ice, killing others to stay alive, sleeping with pistols under their pillows; their wives murdered on Stalin's whim, their children living by a code of lies. Yet they kept their quasi-religious faith in the Bolshevism that justified so much death. Based on a wealth of new materials from Stalin's archives, freshly opened in 2000, interviews with witnesses and massive research from Moscow to the Black Sea, this is a sensitive but damning portrait of the Genghis Khan of our epoch. 25.00 in UK only Illustrated Simon Sebag Montefiore, who was born in 1965, read history at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge. He spent much of the nineties travelling through the ex Soviet Empire, particularly the Caucasus, Ukraine and Central Asia, and wrote widely on Russia especially for the Sunday Times, New York Times and Spectator. Prince of Princes: the Life of Potemkin was published in 2000 and shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson, Duff Cooper and Marsh Biography prizes. The author of two novels and presenter of television documentaries, he lives in London with his wife, the novelist Santa Montefiore, and their daughter. Weidenfeld & Nicolson The Orion Publishing Group Orion House 5 Upper Saint Martin's Lane London, WC2H 9EA Designed by Bob Hollingsworth Front cover image: Joseph and Nadezhda Stalin with Klim and Ekaterina Voroshilov on holiday in Sochi around 1930, O David King. Spine image O AKG Photo, London.

'Simon Sebag Montefiore has pulled it off. His book succeeds in giving us an intimate picture of daily life in the Kremlin under Stalin. The arrests and killings are not ignored; indeed Montefiore supplies extra chapters and verses on the process by which the Soviet dictator moved against his enemies real and potential. An abundance of the sources are wholly new. The book rests on an extraordinary feat of digging up letters and memoirs from the archives of members of Stalin's entourage and their families. Montefiore has also travelled around Russia to trace many surviving witnesses to the scenes he describes. The result is a gripping account. Stalin was a vengeful conspirator and a murderous leader. But he was also "normal" in many ways. He was convivial, solicitous and even flirtatious. When he wanted, he could be quite a charmer. This duality has long been under-appreciated, but it helps to explain why Stalin was admired as well as feared by his associates - and indeed why his power endured to the end of his life. This is a fundamental theme and it is one of Montefiore's merits that he handles it with excitement and cogency.' Robert Service, PRINCE OF PRINCES: THE LIFE OF POTEMKIN 'Fascinating...this highly ambitious biography has succeeded triumphantly.' Antony Beevor, Sunday Times 'If you want a good racy historical read, Prince of Princes certainly provides it! Book of the Year.' Antonia Fraser, Sunday Telegraph 'The best new book I've read this year and indeed for several years. Impeccably researched, beautifully written, it takes us at an unslackening pace through the colourful life of one of the most legendary Russians - war hero, politician, visionary and lover.

Simon Sebag-Montefiore was a journalist on the SUNDAY TIMES before he started writing books. He speaks several languages, has travelled widely, and now writes books full time. His first biography, Prince of Princes, the life of Catherine the Great's lover and chief minister Potemkin, was a huge seller in hardback and paperback.

2008-09-03 Where was the editor?

This book certainly provides a fascinating insight into some aspects of Stalin's reign but overall I found it very disappointing and in desperate need of a good editor.
The research is certainly there in quantity (in fact it felt at times as though the whole pile had been dumped on my lap to sort out for myself) but it is patchy and the prose is dull and clumsily written. Errors of grammar meant that I frequently found myself re-reading a paragraph to work out what it was saying; we just didn't need all the detail and some of it was very repetitive. Overall it seemed in need of structure.
Of course this book aims to be about Stalin's 'court' but in a book of this length one can reasonably expect a bit of background; it is not an academic history and a little context would have been a tremendous help.
For example, why were there only six pages on his life to the age of about 20? Why did he change his birth date? Where were the two pages we needed on Marxist-Leninist theory and the relationship between Bolshevism and Communism? Why did he so hate Trotsky yet take so long to order his death? Was Trotsky really a threat?
The other wasted opportunity was the absence of any discussion or comparison. The book cries out for a comparison with the French Revolution and Terror or with Fascism in Italy, Germany and Spain. What about a chapter telling us what is known about the psychology of people who become torturers and despots?
An interesting book but sadly a missed opportunity.