Edward Rutherfurd was born in England in 1948, in the cathedral city of Salisbury. Educated locally, and at the universities of Cambridge, and Stanford, California, he worked in political research, bookselling and publishing. After numerous attempts to write books and plays, he finally abandoned his career in the book trade in 1983, and returned to his childhood home to write SARUM, a historical novel with a ten-thousand year story, set in the area around the ancient monument of Stonehenge, and Salisbury. Four years later, when the book was published, it became an instant international bestseller, remaining 23 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List. Since then he has written seven more bestsellers: RUSSKA, a novel of Russia; LONDON;  THE FOREST, set in England's New Forest which lies close by Sarum;  two novels which cover the story of Ireland from the time just before Saint Patrick to the twentieth century;  NEW YORK in 2009, and PARIS in 2013.   He is currently hard at work on another big project. His books have been translated into over twenty languages. For over three decades,  Edward has divided his time between Europe and North America.