Marius Gabriel served his author apprenticeship while a student at Newcastle University, where, to finance his postgraduate research, he wrote thirty-three Mills & Boon romances under a pseudonym. His identity as a man had to be kept secret until he turned to longer fiction under his own name. Gabriel is the author of eight sagas and historical novels, including the bestsellers The Mask Of Time, The Original Sin and The Seventh Moon, and was once accused by Cosmopolitan magazine of 'keeping you reading while your dinner burns'. He very seldom burns his own, however, being an enthusiastic cook, as well as an artist and a musician. Born in South Africa in 1954, he has lived and worked in many countries, and now divides his time between London and Cairo. He has three grown-up children.