Cecelia Holland

Cecelia Holland is an American author best known for historical novels set across medieval Europe, the Viking world, the Crusades and other periods of political and military upheaval. Born in Nevada in 1943, she began writing at an early age and published her first novel, The Firedrake, in 1966. She has since written more than thirty novels, combining detailed historical settings with tightly focused stories of ambition, loyalty, survival and conflict.

Her historical fiction includes Until the Sun Falls, about the Mongol expansion into Europe, City of God, set in Renaissance Rome, The Lords of Vaumartin, Jerusalem and The Secret Eleanor. Holland frequently presents major events through soldiers, courtiers, outsiders and lesser-known participants rather than concentrating solely on celebrated rulers. Her novels are noted for their direct prose, complex characters and unsentimental portrayal of power and violence.