Five minutes in and you already feel like you're winning * Time Out * Michel Thomas is a precious find indeed * The Guardian * Works like a dream * Daily Telegraph * Thomas makes it simple * Sunday Times * The most extraordinary learning experience of my life * Emma Thompson * A unique and perfectly brilliant way of learning languages * Stephen Fry * The nearest thing to painless learning * The Times *

Natasha Bershadski studied at the Moscow State Linguistic University and taught English in Moscow before moving to London, where she has taught Russian for 15 years at King's College, UCL, LSE, Middlesex University and the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Michel Thomas (1914-2005) had an amazing life. Born in Poland, he spent his early years in Germany and then in France, where he studied psychology at the Sorbonne in Paris. When war broke out, he fought with the Resistance and suffered imprisonment in labour camps. At the end of the war he joined the US liberation army and later settled in the US where he established his world-famous language school. For more than 50 years he taught languages to the rich and famous and was the world's most sought-after language teacher. After creating several courses of his own, he passed on his method so that other teachers might use it too.