Romain Sardou

• Name — Romain Sardou • Born — 6 January 1974 • Birthplace — Boulogne-Billancourt, France • Occupation — Novelist • Genre — Crime novel, Science fiction, Historical novel, Franco-Belgian comics, Translation • Children — 3 • Parents — Michel Sardou • Relatives — Davy Sardou (brother) Fernand Sardou (grandfather) Jackie Sardou (grandmother)

Romain Sardou was born comes from a long line of artists, singers, actors, and writers. At an early age, he developed a passion for opera - he was ten years old when he discovered his fascination for Richard Wagner. This precocious love led him to the discovery of the theater, then literature. His infatuation for reading quickly gained precedence over his love of music. He grew up among the works and lives of authors whom he cherished. This passion is almost all-encompassing and was to stay with him for life. He left high school in the year before graduation with the firm intention of becoming a playwright. He enrolled in theater classes for three years in order to better understand the mechanics involved in the art of stage craft and more clearly discern the acting profession. In parallel, he engaged in numerous "writing exercises", all aimed at the theater. Unsatisfied, he settled in the country for four years during which he built up his book collection and read voraciously the works of historians. He then left the country to work for two years in Los Angeles, where he wrote scripts for children. He eventually came back to France where he got married and wrote a successful first novel. Romain Sardou is the father of three children (Aliénor, Gabriel & Victor-Scott). He wrote the tale entitled One Second Before Christmas for them.

It was an unusually cold winter in 1284. The "chill winds of the Devil" isolate the small diocese of Draguan, in the county of Toulouse from the rest of the world. Before the sight of the statue of the Virgin Mary broken by the cold, Romée de Haquin, its bishop, is not far from thinking that a curse is wreaking havoc on his parishes. Everything started when two young girls found the remains of tortured bodies in the river. The savage murder of Haquin leaves the village prey to irrational fears. It is at this point that a mysterious priest, Henno Gui, makes his entrance. Accompanied by a young boy and by a hideously ugly man, he had been summoned by Haquin to take charge of the thirteenth parish of the diocese, Heurteloup. After three days of walking in a forest which is as dark as it is inextricable, the group reaches the entrance of a deserted village. The church is in ruins and many houses are abandoned. Surrounded by foul-smelling marshlands and suspected of carrying the plague, the parish has lived in oblivion for decades. Nobody knows what had happened to its inhabitants. The cursed parish, the thirteenth of the bishopric, is so isolated that its name is often omitted from the maps of the provostship, but it does however interest the highest echelons in Rome. The Holy See is full of rumours, and agitations in the most secret inner circles of the Vatican have had repercussions as far afield as the kingdom of France. Maybe the key to these mysteries can be found in the troubled life of Romée de Haquin, or with Henno Gui, the priest with the strange methods, or found at the very heart of the thirteenth parish?

• Pope Martin IV

Deep beneath Jerusalem, from the beginning of time, lies an object that could change the world: the Spark of God. At least that is what nine knights, willing to risk their lives in the attempt to recover it, believe. And when, in 1099, the long-awaited news of the liberation of Jerusalem comes at last, the knights promise their aid and protection to the thousands of pilgrims who set off for the Holy Land. They set about organising a vast pilgrimage, which will enable them to conceal their true aim. But just before they set off, one of them is murdered. Whether by accident or by design, he leaves a packet of letters about the secret buried deep in the Holy Land - a secret known to King Solomon – for his nephew Cosimo to find. Soon the young man discovers that his uncle had organised everything as if in the knowledge that he would never return from the Holy Land. Why? Cosimo determines to find out. Unbeknownst to everyone, he insinuates himself into one of the groups of pilgrims. What will they be searching for in Jerusalem? And now, imagine that the story of this novel is situated either in the past or in the future. But is it really the past and the future? And if it is, then why does everything happen in the same way?

• Bernard of Clairvaux • Hugues de Payens • Baldwin II of Jerusalem • Robert de Craon • Godfrey de Saint-Omer • Andre de Montbard

• Jerusalem • Troyes • Clairvaux Abbey • County of Champagne • Constantinople

"How does Santa Claus deliver all his packages at once?.... Where is his factory?... Who makes the gifts?... How does it all really work?" These questions about the wonderment and mechanics of Christmas are the farthest thing possible from the thoughts of young Harold on the 16th of October, 1851. Harold is an orphan and street urchin in the sad, gray industrial never-town of Cokecuttle, in Lancashire, England – and he does not suspect the exceptional adventure awaiting him.... Harold is selected to become the new Santa Claus and is tasked with delivering presents to children around the world. He is given the traditional red suit and white beard before beginning his assignment.

• Lancashire • Equuleus • North Pole • Aberdeenshire