Simon Sebag Montefiore

The Middle East has forever been the source of religions, prize of empires, spark-wheel of conflicts, well of radicalism and epicentre of our tumultuous world.

No other region has such a hold on our imagination nor such a propensity to unleash mayhem.

Yet few know its real history; fewer still understand its variety and cosmopolitanism, its complexity and interconnectedness.In _The Cauldron_, Simon Sebag Montefiore delivers a fresh and unique history of the entire region in all its diversity, from 1900 up to the present day.

Taking the reader on a spectacular journey from the Ottoman sultanate to the Trump presidency, from Morocco to Iran, this is a dazzling panorama of faith and fanaticism, creativity and tolerance, dictatorship and democracy brought to life by an extraordinary cast of kings, warriors, poets, terrorists and peacemakers.Simon Sebag Montefiore has written many prize-winning books, which include _The World_ and _Jerusalem_, and has been published in fifty-two languages.

He read history at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge where he received his PhD.

He is the presenter of five history series for the BBC and many of his books are being developed for movies or drama series.