Gannibal: The Moor of Petersburg [Paperback]

"'Barnes writes engagingly and informedly about many fields... a remarkable achievement.' Robert Chandler, Independent 'Elegantly written... gripping narrative' Maggie Gee, New Statesman 'Barnes carries his story along in an unpretentious fashion, wearing his research lightly and never failing to intrigue... A ripping good yarn which has the merit of being entirely true.' James Harkin, Financial Times 'Delightful, fascinating, compelling... filled with swashbuckling adventurers' Simon Sebag Montefiore, Sunday Times 'A tale of tremendous ingenuity, verve and resonance' Christopher Clark, Sunday Telegraph 'Brilliant, stylish, ingenious... A small miracle of intellectual command and imaginative empathy' Peter Conrad, Observer 'Wonderfully vivid' Philip Marsden, Guardian"

A truly amazing 18th century life restored to history - Tsar's godson and nobleman, Russian Bluebeard, engineer of genius - who began life in an African village. When Major-General Gannibal died in 1781 in his eighties, he could look back on a long and successful life. He was the godson of Peter the Great, the Empress Elizabeth had given him nobility, thousands of acres, villages of serfs. His French education and a natural gift for mathematics had led him to fame as a fireworks expert and the architect of a string of fortifications from the Arctic Circle to China. As a husband he was a provincial Bluebeard, but his descendants would include the great poet Pushkin and a bevy of British aristocrats. Yet Abram Petrovich Gannibal had been born in very different circumstances. He was a black African, perhaps from Ethiopia, perhaps from modern Chad, sold as a child into slavery. In a brilliant biography Hugh Barnes who has tracked Gannibal's footsteps across three continents restores an extraordinary life to history.

Hugh Barnes was born in London in 1963 and educated at Oxford and Cambridge universities. He covered the war in Kosovo for the Financial Times, New Statesman and Independent on Sunday, and the war in Afghanistan for the Sunday Times. He also worked in Moscow for three years as a correspondent for Agence France Presse. He has published a novel, Special Effects (Faber & Faber, 1994), and is married with two children.