Montefiore chronicles world history through family tales

In COVID-19 lockdown, while many were baking banana bread, sorting out their sock drawers, or playing Candy Crush, British historian Simon Sebag Montefiore wrote a history of the world.

His mammoth 1 300-page book, The World: A Family History, describes the major events on the globe with the intimacy of a biography, using families to tell this majestic story, including the Caesars and the Bonapartes, the Kennedys and the Trumps, the Kenyattas, and the Assads. The SA Jewish Report spoke to Montefiore before his trip to South Africa in March 2023 to promote the book.

Montefiore also authored Jerusalem: The Biography, an immense history of the 3 000-year-old city, told through the triumphs and tribulations of its famous families. It has sold more than a million copies worldwide. He convinced his publishers that he could write a world history in a similar way. “Jerusalem was a stepping stone to this book, and anyone who enjoyed that will enjoy The World.”

“I had a couple of years when I was anxiously wondering how on earth I would write it,” Montefiore said. “And then I realised that family was the way I told Jerusalem’s stories, and this was the best way. These books use stories of families to tether the book to giant tectonic shifts – of technology, of climate, of ideology, of all the great history of migrations – and so on.”

This latest book took its toll. “This book was an immense struggle to write,” Montefiore said, “more than anything I’ve ever written. It nearly killed me writing it. It was hard and stressful work, but luckily, during lockdown, I was able to immerse myself completely in the material. All my big books were written in a state of obsession. I was waking up at 04:00 thinking, ‘How am I going to write about Madagascar?’” He got precious little sleep in three years, and his office floor is piled hip-high with history books.

“History writing is so painful and demanding,” Montefiore said. “It’s labour intensive and the writing is agony, but it’s very satisfying when the books come out. I love writing fiction based on history, and about love and intrigue. I’m a voracious reader. I got to read very widely, which is how The World came about.”

“I was nervous about how it would be received, first because it’s such an ambitious project, and second, because of its size,” Montefiore said. “So far, the reaction has been really positive and in Britain, it’s received rave reviews. It was rated Book of the Year by The Times and The Economist. Critics have said there isn’t a dull page or paragraph.”

Montefiore has written seven major award-winning historical books, with a focus mainly on Russia, plus three novels set in Moscow. “My mother’s family all came from the Russian Empire, some were from Moscow, Lithuania, Poland, and Odesa,” he said. “I’d grown up fascinated with these places, with these people, and their stories. That’s really how I became interested in Russian history and literature.”

In terms of Jewish history, Montefiore said it’s interwoven all the way through the book. “I’m always aware of being a historian and a Jewish historian. My ethnicity is important to me. There are all sorts of things we need to correct, and priorities we need to reassert. One is the joy of Jewish culture and life, another is the experience of anti-Jewish racism, especially in the past two centuries. The Holocaust is described in considerable detail and very carefully. And so is the foundation of Israel.”

Montefiore has been in India and the Netherlands promoting the new book, and has upcoming visits to Spain, South Africa, 12 cities in the United States, Germany, Brazil, Portugal, Serbia, Croatia, Romania, and Türkiye, among others.

He’s being brought to South Africa by the Jewish Literary Festival and Jonathan Ball Publishers. Montefiore will be headlining at the Jewish Literary Festival at the Gardens Community Centre in Cape Town on 21 March. He will speak at the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre on 22 March, and at the Gordon Institute for Business Studies on 23 March. There’s also an event at the Rabbi Cyril Harris Community Centre at the Great Park Synagogue on 26 March. His talks are not to be missed.

When asked why South Africa was on his itinerary, Montefiore said, “I believe this is the most diverse history of the world ever written, and it’s certainly the most African history of the world. So, South Africa plays a big part, but so does Morocco, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and West Africa. The book tells the history the world, with much less about America and Europe and much more Africa, Asia, and South America. There are a lot of Africans in the book. So it’s entirely appropriate that I should come to South Africa.”

Speaking of famous families, many may know of Montefiore’s Windmill in Jerusalem. “That settlement was founded by my great-great uncle, Sir Moses Montefiore, and it was the first area outside the Old City walls. Recently, I reopened it with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after they renovated it. I love that windmill!”

• Simon Sebag Montefiore will be the special guest at the Jewish Literary Festival 2023 in Cape Town on 21 March. To book or find out more about the festival and special hotel offers, go to www.jewishliteraryfestival.co.za or call Beryl on 082 490 6652.