Simon Schama is University Professor of Art History at Columbia University in New York. His award-winning books include Patriots and Liberators, Revolution in the Netherlands 1780-1813; The Embarrassment of Riches; Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution; Dead Certainties (Unwarranted Speculations); Landscape and Memory; Rembrandt's Eyes; the History of Britain trilogy and Hang-Ups: Essays on Painting (Mostly) . Since 1990 he has been writer and presenter of many television programmes on art and history for BBC2, including the fifteen-part A History of Britain. His work has been translated into thirteen languages.