London: The Novel

Edward Rutherfurd was born in Salisbury, England, and was educated in Wiltshire and at Cambridge. He has since lived on both sides of the Atlantic, in Dublin and New York, but he returned to his roots to write his first novel, the best-selling Sarum, a history of Salisbury.  This was followed by the best-selling Russka, a sweeping history of Russia from the cossack horsemen to the Bolshevik revolution.Until the 1980s, Edward Rutherfurd pursued a business career -- he attended Stanford Business School, worked  for W.H. Smith, and was employed by  Tory Party Central Office. As a child, he had been fascinated by the novels of C.S. Forester, Henty, and the historical romances of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. His grandmother, Evelyn Winch, was a well-known romantic novelist of the 1930s. Rutherfurd was also influenced by the novels of James Michener, such as Covenant and Texas, and saw that no one had attempted a similar approach in the United Kingdom.Rutherfurd gave up his secure day job and spent two years researching and writing Sarum. When it was half-finished, and funds were running low, he realized he needed to find an agent. He approached agent Gill Coleridge with a few chapters and a synopsis. Within a month, Century bought the book in England, and the novel was auctioned in the United States. Ten years later, Sarum is still selling all over the world.  Edward Rutherfurd currently lives outside Dublin, Ireland.From the Hardcover edition.