Helen Nicholson is Reader in history at Cardiff University. She has written extensively on the history of the military orders, the crusades in general and the Templars in particular. Her best-known publications include 'The Knights Templar: A New History' (Sutton Publishing, 2001) and 'Templars, Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights: Images of the Military Orders 1128-1291' (Leicester University Press, 1993).
David Nicolle was born in 1944, the son of the illustrator Pat Nicolle. He worked in the BBC Arabic service for a number of years before gaining an MA from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, and a doctorate from Edinburgh University. He later taught world and Islamic art and architectural history at Yarmuk University, Jordan. He has written many books and articles on medieval and Islamic warfare, and has been a prolific author of Osprey titles for many years. David lives and works in Leicestershire, UK.