Slower pace than the prequel Young Stalin, reflecting the declining energy in the dictator himself at the height of his power. The author captures the confusion and uncertainty of being close to the psychotic Stalin, and the intrigues and betrayals make a gripping text. Brilliantly researched.

As a youth, Stalin was a bank robber, poet, priest and Siberian exile. Born with a weak arm, this is Stalin before the cult of personality. Montefiore’s writing is brilliant, tracking the rise of a cut-throat revolutionary in Bleak Russia. Robberies, fighting and deceptions keep the novel gripping.