Stephen R. Lawhead is an internationally acclaimed author of mythic history and imaginative fiction. His works include such best-selling novels as Byzantium, Patrick: Son of Ireland, and the series' The Pendragon Cycle, The Song of Albion, The Celtic Crusades, and his latest, King Raven Trilogy.

Stephen was born in 1950, in Nebraska in the USA. Most of his early life was spent in America where he earned a university degree in Fine Arts and attended theological college for two years. His first professional writing was done at Campus Life magazine in Chicago, where he was an editor and staff writer. During his five years at Campus Life he wrote hundreds of articles and several non-fiction books.

After a brief foray into the music business - as president of his own record company — he began full-time freelance writing in 1981. He moved to England in order to research Celtic legend and history. His first novel, In the Hall of the Dragon King, became the first in a series of three books, The Dragon King Trilogy, and was followed by the two-volume Empyrion saga, Dream Thief and then the Pendragon Cycle, now in six volumes: Taliesin, Merlin, Arthur, Pendragon, Grail and Avalon. This was followed by the award-winning Song of Albion series, The Celtic Crusades series, and the King Raven Trilogy, an epic retelling of the legend of Robin Hood.

He has written nine children's books, many of them originally offered to his two sons, Drake and Ross. He is married to Alice Slaikeu Lawhead, also a writer, with whom he has collaborated on some books and articles. They make their home in Oxford, England.

Stephen's non-fiction, fiction and children's titles have been published in twenty-one foreign languages. All of his novels have remained continuously in print in the United States and Britain since they were first published. He has won numereous industry awards for his novels and children's books, and in 2003 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by the University of Nebraska.