Professor Norman Davies was born in 1939 in Bolton (Lancashire), he was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, the University of Sussex and at universities including Grenoble, Perugia and Kraków. His formative years created a lifelong European outlook. His special interest in Central and Eastern Europe was unusual among contemporaries. It started in 1958 when he drove from Lancashire to Istanbul and back in an ex-US Army Jeep. It was consolidated by further adventurous travels, intensive Russian courses, and by post-doctoral study at the Jagiellonian University, where he obtained a Ph.D. Davies’ academic career centered on the School of Slavonic Studies, University of London. Over the years, Norman Davies has received many honors. He was awarded the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and Saint George (CMG) in 2001 for ‘services to history’, and has collected several Polish distinctions including the Order of Merit. He is an honorary citizen of several cities and the holder of numerous honorary degrees, most recently a D. Lit from Sussex. Though formally retired from his academic post in 1996, Norman Davies continues to write and publish. He lives in Oxford and Krakow with his wife Maria, and he has two sons. From 2000 – 2006 he was a Supernumerary Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford: and is now a Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge. Professor Davies is the author of more than ten books on history and he is represented in London by David Godwin Associates.