Helena P. Schrader is an award-winning and best-selling author and historian. She holds a PhD in history from the University of Hamburg and served as an American diplomat in Europe and Africa. She has published two critically acclaimed non-fiction books on the crusader states, "The Holy Land in the Era of the Crusades," and "The Powerful Women of Outremer." Her novels set in the Middle Ages are based both on historical and archaeological sources. Six of her novels focus on the crusader states rather than the Crusades, adding a fresh perspective to the literature on this era. When researching for The Tale of the English Templar, she travelled extensively in the Languedoc, becoming familiar with this enchanting region and its complex culture, architecture, and history.