My review of:

The Romanovs 1613 – 1918
by Simon Sebag Montefiore,
Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London, 2017, 692pp, £10.99

Simon Sebag Montefiore, the history writer and academic, has written what will probably become the definitive volume on the Romanovs as tsars (caesars or emperors) of Russia from 1613 to 1918. As a biographer of Catherine the Great and Stalin, a journalist following the fall of the Soviet Union, and the son of a Lithuanian mother whose Jewish family fled tsarist Russia, Montefiore was well-placed to provide an insightful, detailed narrative on Russian history’s premier family. Interestingly, Montefiore starts each chapter with a list of the ‘Cast’ of historical figures, which perhaps draws on his background as a historical novelist.

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My review of:

Hitler’s Holy Relics: A True Story Of Nazi Plunder And The Race To Recover The Crown Jewels Of The Holy Roman Empire
by Sidney Fitzpatrick,
Simon & Schuster, London, 2010, 318pp, £7.99.

However sensational the tag-line may sounds, when considering this book the reader should first pay careful attention to the author’s note:

“The true story that follows is based on military records, correspondence, diaries, interviews, archival materials, and the unpublished World War II oral memoirs of University of California, Berkeley, art professor Walter Horn.”

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