Author(s): Piers Paul Read

Non-Fiction

Read reveals the Templars - in their white tunics with red crosses over chainmail - as the first uniformed standing army in the Western world, as well as pioneers of international banking. He examines their fall at the hands of a greedy French king, who extracted confessions of heresy and immorality by torture. And the extraordinary Middle Ages, with their blend of high religious fervour and unusual cruelty, are brought thrillingly, startlingly to the page.

Piers Paul Read read history at Cambridge and is the author of twelve acclaimed novels and three works of non-fiction, including the international bestseller

Alive
. He is married with four children and lives in London.