Adam Zamoyski (born 11 January 1949) is a British historian and author descended from the historically important Polish nobility.

Personal life

Born in New York City in 1949, as Adam Stefan Zamoyski, the youngest son of Count Stefan Zamoyski (1904–1976), member of the Zamoyski family and his wife, Princess Elizabeth Czartoryska (1905–1989), who left their homeland when it was invaded by Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939. When the Soviets took power at the end of World War II, they found themselves stranded in the West, eventually settling in London. Zamoyski has dual Polish-British nationality. He was brought up in England and educated at St Philip's Preparatory School, The Queen's College, Oxford, where he read History and Modern Languages (BA Hons. 1970, MA Hons 1974). Zamoyski lives in London with his wife, the painter Emma Sergeant (b. 1959), daughter of Sir Patrick John Rushton Sergeant. He first visited Poland in the 1960s and now has a second home in an area of great biodiversity near Zamość, where he has planted over a thousand trees and restored a number of traditional wooden cottages.

Career

Zamoyski is a 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's invasion of Russia in 1812. His biography of Frédéric Chopin, ''Chopin. Prince of the Romantics'', was serialised as the 'Book of the Week' on BBC Radio 4 in 2012. His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages.

Books

Contributions and other publications