Award-winning historian Orlando Figes presents an enthralling, panoramic cultural history of 19th century Europe through the prism of the intertwined lives of opera singer Pauline Viardot, novelist Ivan Turgenev, and connoisseur Louis Viardot – Pauline’s husband. Their friends numbered Flaubert, Chopin, Dickins, Rossini, George Sand, Liszt and Delacroix. They were the arbiters of a pan-European culture who forged a new cosmopolitan age.

Orlando Figes is Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London. A prize-winning author, his books have been translated into over 30 languages.

Lady Marina Vaizey CBE is an art critic and writer. Formerly a member of the Arts Council, she has curated several exhibitions. She is currently a trustee for The Musical Brain and is on the editorial board for the magazine of the V&A.