'A savage voice which is telling you a good jest while trying to drown you in story' ROBERT LOW (Author of the Kingdom Series and the Oathsworn Series) Praise for The Broken Empire: 'Dark and relentless, Prince of Thorns will pull you under and drown you in story. A two-in-the-morning page turner. Absolutely stunning... jaw-dropping' ROBIN HOBB 'Excellent - on a par with George R.R. Martin' CONN IGGULDEN 'Lawrence's poetic prose is amazing, far and away the best of the modern fantasy authors' PETER V. BRETT 'A hard-edged tale of survival and conquest in a brutal medieval world, well told and very compelling' TERRY BROOKS

Mark Lawrence was born in Champagne-Urbanan, Illinois, to British parents but moved to the UK at the age of one. He went back to the US after taking a PhD in mathematics at Imperial College to work on a variety of research projects including the 'Star Wars' missile defence programme. Returning to the UK, he has worked mainly on image processing and decision/reasoning theory. He says he never had any ambition to be a writer so was very surprised when a half-hearted attempt to find an agent turned into a global publishing deal overnight. His first trilogy, THE BROKEN EMPIRE, has been universally acclaimed as a ground-breaking work of fantasy. Mark is married, with four children, and lives in Bristol.