Peter Frankopan is Professor of Global History at Oxford University where he is also Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College. He took a First in History and was Schiff Scholar at Jesus College, Cambridge, before completing his doctorate at Oxford, where he was Senior Scholar at Corpus Christi College. He has lectured all over the world, including at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Shanghai, Beijing, Dubai, Lahore, Astana, the UN and UNICEF. His revised translation of The Alexiad by Anna Komnene was published in 2009 and The First Crusade: The Call from the East was published in 2012.

Neil Packer has illustrated many adult and children's titles, including The Name of the Rose, One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Iliad and The Odyssey and has worked on numerous titles forthe Folio Society. His work has been exhibited in the British Museum, the British Library and the Royal Academy. He has also been longlisted for the CILIP Carnegie medal.