The Cauldron: Making of the Modern Middle East

About this event

7.30-9pm, £20, building // How did one extraordinary prince create Saudi Arabia? Why were a million Armenians killed during WWI? How did an elderly cleric overthrow the Shah and become ruler of Iran? Why did the Arab Spring fail? Could Trump's peace deal lead to a new Middle East? We are delighted to welcome back to JW3, international bestselling and multi-award-winning Simon Sebag-Montefiore for the launch of his essential and spellbinding new book, The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East, exploring all of these questions and more. Simon Sebag Montefiore's prize-winning books have been published in forty-eight languages. Jerusalem: The Biography – A History of the Middle East was a number one Sunday Times (UK) bestseller, a global bestseller and won The Book of the Year Prize from the Jewish Book Council (US) and the Wenjin Book Prize of the National Library of China (People’s Republic of China). In 2025, he was awarded the Blue Metropolis Words to Change Prize (Canada) for “his body of work in humanity and history.’ He read history at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge University where he received his PhD. He is the presenter of five history series for the BBC and many of his books are being developed for movies or drama series.