The pages seem to exude even smells with an uncanny sense of realism: Lawhead's prose is certainly up to the task! His evocative, mellifluous descriptions of exotic settings include sight, motion and sounds in abundance. In Taliesin, he has proposed nothing less than a fanciful, fluid blending of three mythologies into a single epic history - the twilight and final cataclysmic collapse of the fantastic empire of Atlantis the inspiring life of Taliesin, Celtic bard and shaman, thought to be father to Merlin, during the withdrawal of the Roman Empire in Britain and the onset of the Dark Ages and the endlessly repeated (and despite today's protestations to the contrary, never proven) legend of Joseph of Arimathea's carrying the Holy Grail to Britain accompanied by the dizzying, wildfire spread of Christianity throughout Europe in the centuries following Christ's crucifixion in the Holy Land! Stephen Lawhead's storytelling is certainly ambitious. Magnificent writing but ultimately flawed. 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. All of his novels have remained continuously in print in the United States and Britain since they were first published. Stephen's non-fiction, fiction and children's titles have been published in twenty-one foreign languages. He is married to Alice Slaikeu Lawhead, also a writer, with whom he has collaborated on some books and articles. He has written nine children's books, many of them originally offered to his two sons, Drake and Ross. This was followed by the award-winning Song of Albion series which consists of The Paradise War, The Silver Hand, and The Endless Knot. 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 five volumes: Taliesin, Merlin, Arthur, Pendragon, and Grail. He moved to England in order to research Celtic legend and history. During his five years at Campus Life he wrote hundreds of articles and several non-fiction books.Īfter a brief foray into the music business-as president of his own record company-he began full-time freelance writing in 1981. His first professional writing was done at Campus Life magazine in Chicago, where he was an editor and staff writer.

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. Stephen was born in 1950, in Nebraska in the USA. His works include Byzantium, Patrick, and the series The Pendragon Cycle, The Celtic Crusades, and The Song of Albion. Lawhead is an internationally acclaimed author of mythic history and imaginative fiction.

Taliesin stephen lawhead