Adam Zamoyski (born 11 January 1949) is a British historian and author.
Personal life
Born in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
in 1949, Adam Stefan Zamoyski was brought up in England and educated at St Philip's Preparatory School,
The Queen's College, Oxford
The Queen's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its pred ...
, where he read History and Modern Languages (BA Hons. 1970, MA Hons 1974).
Zamoyski has dual Polish-British nationality and speaks English, Polish, French, Italian and Russian. His parents, Count
Stefan Zamoyski (1904–1976) and Princess Elizabeth Czartoryska (1905–1989), left their homeland when it was invaded by
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
and
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
in 1939. When the Soviets took power at end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, they found themselves stranded in the West, eventually settling in London.
Zamoyski lives in London with his wife, the painter Emma Sergeant.
He first visited Poland in the 1960s and now has a second home in an area of great
biodiversity
Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...
near Zamość, where he has planted over a thousand trees and restored a number of traditional wooden cottages.
Career
Zamoyski is a freelance historian and author, with numerous books including his history of Poland, ''The Polish Way'', and ''
Moscow 1812: Napoleon's Fatal March'', his account of
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
's invasion of Russia in 1812. His biography of
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 181017 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period, who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leadin ...
, ''Chopin. Prince of the Romantics'', was serialised as the '
Book of the Week
''Book of the Week'' is a BBC Radio 4 series that is broadcast daily on week days. Each week, extracts from the selected book, usually a non-fiction work, are read over five episodes; each fifteen-minute episode is broadcast in the morning (9:45a ...
' on
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
in 2012.
His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages.
Zamoyski has lectured across Europe, the US and Australia, as well as featuring in television and radio broadcasts.
Various debates in which he has taken part are accessible online.
Books
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Most of Zamoyski's books are available as
e-book
An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alt ...
s.
Contributions and other publications
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* Nine entries by Zamoyski in
Grove Art Online
''Grove Art Online'' is the online edition of ''The Dictionary of Art'', often referred to as the ''Grove Dictionary of Art'', and part of Oxford Art Online, an internet gateway to online art reference publications of Oxford University Press, ...
, London 1996.
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* From 2003 to 2019 Zamoyski wrote over a dozen articles for ''
The Spectator
''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world.
It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...
''.
Adam Zamoyski
at ''The Spectator
''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world.
It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...
'' website.
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See also
*List of Polish people
This is a partial list of notable Polish or Polish-speaking or -writing people. People of partial Polish heritage have their respective ancestries credited.
Science
Physics
* Czesław Białobrzeski
* Andrzej Buras
* Georges Charpa ...
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Zamoyski, Adam
1949 births
Living people
Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford
English people of Polish descent
Historians of Polish descent
Counts of Poland
Adam
Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...
People educated at Downside School
Knights of Malta
Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
American emigrants to England
Historians of the Napoleonic Wars
Writers from New York City
American people of Polish descent
20th-century British historians
Polish male non-fiction writers
Naturalized citizens of Poland
Historians of Poland
Chopin scholars