Simon Sebag Montefiore

"I’ve chosen Edward Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: what historian wouldn’t want to have written this book? It’s noble; it’s magnificent; the English is so beautiful, and so grand and sweeping and yet it’s also very funny; it’s full of wit and outrage.

You can laugh a lot and learn a lot, and it’s just a colossal concept too. It’s really a beautiful book. It’s one of the greatest history books ever written: it’s right up there with Thucydides and Herodotus."