"I'm not looking for 'War and Peace'" is a modern way of saying "keep it short".

However, "I am looking for 'War and Peace'" should be on our lips.

Leo Tolstoy's masterpiece is a complete semester of Russian and French history, using the zoom button to focus on its impact on families from the aristocracy to the peasants.

'War and Peace I' introduces the five aristocratic families at the heart of the plot.

It paints a picture of petty jealousy, pride and forbidden love in the Russian stately homes and ends after the Battle of Austerlitz between Russia and France.

If you like costume dramas and the novels of Jane Austen ('Pride and Prejudice', 'Sense and Sensibility'), this is the granddaddy of them all. The same goes for fans of Bernard Cornwell's 'Sharpe' novels and TV series', starring Sean Bean.

'War and Peace' was made into a BBC TV series in 2016, written by Andrew Davies and starring Lily James and James Norton.

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a Russian author, a master of realistic fiction and one of the world’s greatest novelists. Tolstoy’s major works include 'War and Peace' (1865–69) and 'Anna Karenina' (1875–77), two of the greatest novels of all time and pinnacles of realist fiction. Beyond novels, he wrote many short stories and later in life also essays and plays.

In the years following the publication of 'War and Peace' Tolstoy - who was born to a Russian aristocratic family - had a spiritual awakening that made him a committed Christian anarchist and pacifist. His philosophy inspired Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.