Ryan Lavelle is currently lecturing in medieval history at King Alfred's College. Winchester and the University of Southampton, England. He is completing a study of the reign of the Anglo-Saxon king Aethelred II 'The Unready', to be published later this year by Tempus Publishing. Donato Spedaliere was born in Switzerland, and moved to Tuscany at the age of 10, where he still lives. Having studied at the Instituto Nazionale di Belle Arti in Florence he served in the Italian Army as a paratrooper. He has worked as an illustrator for publishers in Italy and abroad and he is the chief illustrator of Alina Illustrazioni. Sarah Sulemsohn Spedaliere was born in Romania and emigrated to Israel with her family. Following a degree at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Sarah lectured at the University of Florence and in 1994 completed an architecture degree. Since 1998 she has worked at Alina Ilustrazioni, which she founded with her husband Donato.