Timothy Garton Ash is Professor of European Studies Emeritus at the University of Oxford and a columnist for the Guardian. He has lived and breathed European politics and culture for over fifty years, witnessing some of the most dramatic scenes in its history, meeting many of its key players and analysing how life has evolved for ordinary Europeans across the breadth of the continent.

He has won many prizes for his eleven previous books, including The File, his riveting autobiographical account of investigating the contents of his Stasi file after the fall of East Germany. His last book, Homelands: A Personal History of Europe, has appeared in twenty-three European languages.