There have been many biographies of Stalin, but the court that surrounded him is untravelled ground. Simon Sebag Montefiore, acclaimed biographer of Catherine the Great's lover, prime minister and general, Potemkin, has unearthed the vast underpinning that sustained Stalin. Not oinly ministers such as Molotov or secret service chiefs such as Beria, but men and women whose loyalty he trusted only until the next purge.

Simon Sebag Montefiore , who was born in 1965, read history at Cambridge. He spent most of the nineties travelling through the ex-Soviet Empire and wrote widely on Russia, especially for the Sunday Times, New York Times and Spectator. Prince of Princes: the Life of Potemkin was published in 2000 and shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson, Duff Cooper and Marsh Biography prizes. The author of two novels and presenter of television documentaries, he lives in London with his wife, the novelist Santa Montefiore, and their two children.

Before Midsomer Murders , John Nettles was best known for his role as Sergeant Jim Bergerac in the television series Bergerac . Other TV appearances include A Family at War , Black Beauty , The Liver Birds, Dickens of London and The Merchant of Venice . Stage work ranges from the Royal Shakespeare Company to pantomime. Orion Audio invited him to read Stalin because of his magnificent audiobook reading of George Orwell's 1984.

The book of Stalin is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Abridged by lsabel Morgan Produced by Nicholas Jones (Strathmore Publishing) Pronunciation adviser: Sergey Rybin Original text © Simon Sebag Montefiore 2003 The moral right of the author has been asserted Abridgement and recording © & © Orion Publishing Group Ltd 2004 Cover image: Joseph and Nadezhda Stalin on holiday in Sochi around 1930 Cover image ©David King Reader photograph © Peter Bolton.