Jerusalem

Crack open the spine of this gloriously illustrated book to discover the city that has changed the course of history. Because Jerusalem's story is the story of the world - and its most recognisable, powerful, flamboyant (and sometimes malevolent) characters: King Herod, the Emperors Nero and Caesar, Cleopatra, Nebuchadnezzar and Catherine the Great to Winston Churchill, David Ben-Gurion and Yasser Arafat.

The history of Jerusalem is the ultimate epic story of battling kings, scheming empresses, lying politicians, love, faith, families and feuds. This beautifully illustrated retelling of historian Simon Sebag Montefiore's seminal classic Jerusalem: A Biography is masterful: its stories reveal in a balanced and measured way the Middle East's political, religious and ethnic rivalries - past and present - that readers will find easier to understand through the context of its 3,000-year history. In doing so, it becomes an essential guide to understanding today's world.