Michael Foss was born in India in 1937 and educated in England and America. He has travelled widely and, after a spell as a lecturer at an American university, he settled in London and took up writing full time. His books include Out of India, The Road Taken, Looking for the Last Big Tree, Tudor Lives, The Founding of the Jesuits, Undreamed Shores, On Tour: The British Traveller in Europe, Poetry of the World Wars, Gods and Heroes: The Story of Greek Mythology, The World of Camelot, Celtic Myths and Legends and People of the First Crusade. He won the J. R. Ackerley prize for Out of India in 2002.