Writer and historian

"Sebestyen explains Budapest’s significance to central Europe, bringing it to life through compelling portraits of its many autocrats, revolutionaries, heroes and liars. The result is the most accessible and authoritative history of the city in a generation."

"This book is a delight. Elegant writing, urbane knowledge, scholarly depth, and a beautifully-sketched cast of warlords, writers and empresses, communists and kings. Not just a superb portrait of Budapest but a history of 2,000 years of central Europe."

“Victor Sebestyen’s Budapest is a compelling portrait of one of the most important cities in Europe. It is Full of sharp insights, elegant writing and vivid characters, a magisterial work spanning 2,000 years from the Romans to the present day.”

"This book is a delight. Elegant writing, urbane knowledge, scholarly depth, and a beautifully-sketched cast of warlords, writers and empresses, communists and kings. Not just a superb portrait of Budapest but a history of 2,000 years of central Europe."

"Can first-rate history read like a thriller? With “Lenin: The Man, the Dictator, and the Master of Terror,” the journalist Victor Sebestyen has pulled off this rarest of feats — down to the last of its 569 pages."

"Excellent, original and compelling portrait of Lenin as man and leader."

"Victor Sebestyen's engaging 'Lenin'... helps explain why a century later the central amorality of the unfulfilled Utopian ideal is still with us"​

"Victor Sebestyen’s engagingly written biography…. hits its stride in the years of revolutionary upheaval; it captures all the drama of Lenin’s leadership against a background of imperial collapse, the ravages of war and the building of a dictatorship."

“In his excellent new biography, Lenin the Dictator, Victor Sebestyen adds... the human side of Lenin…”

“Victor Sebestyen brings the man’s complexities to life in Lenin the Dictator, balancing personality with politics in succinct and readable prose.”

"In this new biography, Victor Sebestyen gives a vivid and rounded picture of Lenin the man… he brings to the task a gift for narrative and for describing his rich cast of characters."

‘“A richly readable new biography…enthralling.”

"Sebestyen demonstrates with memorable examples Lenin's cold cynicism and easy recourse to terror and his seemingly pathological reliance on censorship and disinformation."

“Sharp focus and racy prose capture the events and decisions that fed into the growing turmoil across Eastern Europe as the East German regime crumbled.”

“A must-have account. Sebestyen's brilliantly written narrative unfolds in brief, gripping episodes.”

“Numerous books have [attempted] to synthesize the compelling story of the fall of communism, but Revolution 1989 comes closest to being the essential volume. Sebestyen’s elegant narrative lays out in crisp episodes what was happening . . . throughout the tumultuous 1980s.”

“Masterly handling of this complex and fast-moving story and its ever-changing cast.”

“A revealing account…..Sebestyen makes brilliantly effective use of archive material available since the collapse of the Berlin Wall.”

“Sebestyen's strength is his sharp focus and racy prose... Here is history written like a Greek tragedy... In Revolution 1989 nothing is taken for granted until the last triumphant page. ”

“Vivid personal glimpses and striking details... Victor Sebestyen's book is full of sharp snapshots and crisp narrative.”

“Victor Sebestyen’s tremendous Revolution 1989 – a gripping account of how the Berlin Wall fell, taking Soviet Communism down with it. As a historian, Sebestyen is deeply immersed in his sources; as a journalist he tells a truly gripping tale.”

“A thrilling read... Sebestyen is good at sketching the leading players but he also succinctly conveys what life was like for the ordinary citizens.”

“Rollicking mix of high drama and sordid reality... conventional history, spiced with telling quotations.”

“Victor Sebestyen's vivid panoramic work is a fine account... the writing is taut, the scene-setting dramatic, giving the book an almost cinematic feel."

“Sebestyen's writing is as exhilarating and powerfully emotional as the events he describes... In a narrative as intoxicating as it is intricate, Revolution 1989 not only encompasses the political confrontations which fomented revolt but uses brief, skilful vignettes of ordinary lives to recreate the world behind the Iron Curtain.”​

“A digestible and colourful history of that miraculous year.”

“Revolution 1989 is a lucid primer on the background to, and events of that magical year. Sebestyen's narrative is clear, entertaining and sure-footed.”

“Sebestyen has got the pace and the balance just right.”

“Sebestyen has made an excellent job of organising his disparate material, so that the reader can recapture, with the same sense of bafflement and elation, the events that made the Europe we live in - and after 20 years he can add understanding too. "Graphic and detailed. . . Leads us right into the heart of the intimate dramas that make history . . . Excellent.”

“Victor Sebestyen brilliantly pulls together the events that led to the fall of the Soviet empire... it still takes your breath away 20 years on.”

“It's a complex story spanning many countries, but this exciting yet deeply researched work brings it impressively to life... compelling.”

“A compelling and illuminating account of a great drama in the history of our times which showed one again that ordinary men and women really can change the world. ”

“Revolution 1989 is a superbly written and impressively documented chronicle of the year John Paul II described as an annus mirabilis... Sebestyen provides a vivid portrait of the Stalinist leaders and their endless cynicism.”

“Pacy and vivid... a considerable achievement... [Sebestyen] is a writer with a gift not only for exposition but also evocation.”

“Sebestyen‍'s book should become t‍he standard work on t‍he uprising... A gripping read.”

“Excellent... a gripping, detailed reconstruction”

“A small masterpiece that should be read and treasured by all who value mankind’s eternal quest for freedom.”

“Sebestyen is excellent at bringing to life the revolutionary moment. Personalities leap from his pages...”

“A fast-paced narrative built scene by scene, moving deftly among the key players…Steeped in detail."

“Superbly researched... very well written... this engrossing book is a powerful adventure story as well as an uplifting morality tale.”

“Sebestyen's account of the doomed uprising is utterly enthralling and almost unbearable to read. ”

“Twelve Days is a triumph both of research and dramatic reconstruction... masterly account of the 1956 uprising. Such is the brilliance of the prose that the reader is lulled into the belief that somehow the idealistic students can pull it off.”

“A readable, and exciting, blend of the scholarly with the journalistic, altogether a fitting commemoration of the drama.”

“Well documented... and vividly written. ”

“This lucid, highly readable account of the Hungarian Revolution... eschews all cliches to get through to what really happened.”

“Sebestyen dispels many cliches surrounding the uprising.”

“A magisterial but totally gripping and fresh account of the noble, violent, and doomed Hungarian revolution.”​

“Fresh, readable and honest... the story of the Hungarian revolution also demands attention because of its almost disturbing relevance.”

“Masterly... Victor Sebestyen is a marvellous guide to the Hungarian Revolution... His nuanced, intelligent account... is a first class book.”

“Sebestyen has done a major good deed by commemorating this hugely important event with a clear straightforward and compelling account.”

"This is an exceptionally involving and horrifying book. ”