Talk:Simon Sebag Montefiore

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[edit] Relation to other Montefiores?

What is the relation between Simon Sebag Montefiore and Hugh William Montefiore, Bishop of Birmingham? DFH 12:04, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Nauseating self-promotion

"Montefiore's writing style and choice of content distinguish him as a new breed of biographer who seeks to engage and appeal to the reader, rather than just tell a factual narrative."

[vomits all over keyboard]

If you're going to include this self-promoting nonsense, it might be worth including a 'criticisms' section which would question whether SMM ought to be described as a historian at all. As I understand it, a 'historian' is a professional academic. Montefiore is a writer; I would not even stoop to call him a writer of history ('popular fiction' might be more accurate).

Historian is defined as, "a writer of history" and "a person learned in or studying history"; history is defined as, "the study of past events" (Oxford Pocket American Dictionary of Current English, OUP, New York, 2002).

Of SSM's works I have only read "Stalin - The Court of the Red Tsar" (2003) which was very well received by such eminent historians as Antony Beevor, Andrew Roberts, Robert Service, Anne Applebaum and my old teacher Richard Overy. That work, which is fully referenced and noted with a comprehensive index and bibliography, appears fully to qualify as history. Regrettably the Wikipedia article on SSM is not one of the best.

I am wondering if you would care to elaborate on your comment, "I would not even stoop to call him a writer of history ('popular fiction' might be more accurate)."

Marktunstill (talk) 20:29, 29 March 2008 (UTC)