Written in History celebrates the great letters of world history, creative culture and personal life.

Acclaimed historian Simon Sebag Montefiore selects over one hundred letters from ancient times to the twenty-first century: some are noble and inspiring, some despicable and unsettling; some are exquisite works of literature, others brutal, coarse and frankly outrageous; many are erotic, others heartbreaking.

The writers vary from Elizabeth I, Rameses the Great and Leonard Cohen to Emmeline Pankhurst, Mandela, Stalin, Michelangelo, Suleiman the Magnificent and unknown people in extraordinary circumstances - from love letters to calls for liberation, declarations of war to reflections on death.

In the colourful, accessible style of a master storyteller, Montefiore shows why these letters are essential reading: how they enlighten our past, enrich the way we live now - and illuminate tomorrow.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Simon Sebag Montefiore is a prizewinning historian whose bestselling books have been published in over forty-five languages. Catherine The Great and Potemkin was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize; Stalin: The Court of The Red Tsar won the History Book of the Year Prize at the British Book Awards; Young Stalin won the Costa Biography Award, LA Times Biography Prize and Le Grand Prix de Biographie; Jerusalem: The Biography was a number one bestseller and won the Jewish Book Council's Book of the Year prize; The Romanovs: 1613-1918 was an international bestseller and won the Lupicaia del Terriccio Book Prize.

Written in History: Letters that Changed the World is republished in South Africa by Jonathan Ball Publishers