Paul Kenyon – författare

A vivid, brilliant, darkly humorous and horrifying history of some of the strangest dictators that Europe has ever seen. 'A witty and page-turning narrative full of grotesque characters' Misha Glenny 'Will leave you astonished, exhausted and curious... An unapologetic page turner' Spectator 'Essential reading for anyone interested in Romania past and present' John Simpson 'An engaging introduction to the rich history [of Romania]' New StatesmanBalanced precariously on the shifting fault line between East and West, Romania's past is one of the great untold stories of modern Europe. The country that gave us Vlad Dracula, and whose citizens consider themselves descendants of ancient Rome, has traditionally preferred the status of enigmatic outsider. But it has experienced some of the most disastrous leaderships of the last century.After a relatively benign period led by a dutiful King and his vivacious British-born Queen, the country oscillated wildly. Its interwar rulers form a gallery of bizarre characters: the corrupt and mentally unbalanced King Carol; the fascist death cult led by Corneliu Codreanu; the vain General Ion Antonescu. After 1945 power was handed to Romania's tiny communist party, under which it experienced severe repression, purges and collectivisation. Then in 1965, Nicolae Ceau?escu came to power. And thus began the strangest dictatorship of all.

A Financial Times Book of the Year'Jaw-dropping' Daily Express'Grimly fascinating' Financial Times'Humane, timely, accessible and well-researched' Irish TimesThe dictator who grew so rich on his country's cocoa crop that he built a 35-storey-high basilica in the jungles of the Ivory Coast. The austere, incorruptible leader who has shut Eritrea off from the world in a permanent state of war and conscripted every adult into the armed forces. In Equatorial Guinea, the paranoid despot who thought Hitler was the saviour of Africa and waged a relentless campaign of terror against his own people. The Libyan army officer who authored a new work of political philosophy, The Green Book, and lived in a tent with a harem of female soldiers, running his country like a mafia family business.And behind these almost incredible stories of fantastic violence and excess lie the dark secrets of Western greed and complicity, the insatiable taste for chocolate, oil, diamonds and gold that has encouraged dictators to rule with an iron hand, siphoning off their share of the action into mansions in Paris and banks in Zurich and keeping their people in dire poverty.

From the bestselling author of Dictatorland, this is the long and turbulent history of China’s growing influence over African states.People are increasingly fascinated by – and terrified of – the role of China in the modern world, and in this book Paul Kenyon gives a fascinating insight into how China operates overseas. He charts China's extraordinary success in gaining access to, and control over, Africa's natural resources, consumers, workforce and political institutions.Kenyon's narrative is full of shocking stories and extraordinary characters from both China and Africa. He tells of how Mao and his comrades cultivated new African leaders in the 1950s– Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana, Julius Nyerere in Tanzania and a young Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe – seducing this new generation of statesmen with cheap supplies of arms and machinery, training in guerilla warfare and exaggerated displays of wealth at flag-waving receptions in Beijing.Kenyon takes us right up to the present day, examining China as a mighty economic power under Xi Jinping. Today China's presence is ubiquitous in Africa and Xi Jinping offers huge infrastructure projects, joint exploitation of mineral wealth and easy credit to African states still struggling to develop – all in exchange for access and control.Praise for Dictatorland - A Financial Times Book of the Year:'Jaw-dropping' Daily Express'Grimly fascinating' Financial Times'Humane, timely, accessible and well-researched' Irish Times‘It is [the] minute observations that make Mr Kenyon's book so hard to put down’ Economist