'Enthralling. As fascinating as a novel and more so than most' New York Times
Robert K. Massie was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and studied American history at Yale and European history at Oxford, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar. He was president of the Authors Guild from 1987 to 1991. His books include Peter the Great: His Life and World (for which he won a Pulitzer Prize for biography), Catherine the Great, Nicholas and Alexandra, Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War and Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea.