John Buchan (1875-1940) was born in Perth, Scotland and educated at Oxford where he published five books and won several awards, including one for poetry. He went on to be a barrister, a member of parliament, a soldier, a publisher, a historical biographer, and - in 1935 - he became the Govenor-General of Canada. Today he is best remembered as the author of his perennially popular adventure novels.

Sir John Keegan is a world-renowned historian of the First World War. His books include The First World War (Pimlico), A History of Warfare (Pimlico), and a biography of Winston Churchill (Weidenfeld & Nicholson, November 2003).