Philip Parker was born in Liverpool, England. He studied history at Cambridge and International Relations at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Bologna, Italy, before working in the British Diplomatic Service. He has a particular interest in ancient and medieval political and military systems and is the author of The Northmen's Fury: A History of the Viking World , The Empire Stops Here: A Journey Around the Frontiers of the Roman World, and the DK Eyewitness Companion Guide to World History . Bill Bragg is an award-winning British artist and illustrator known for his atmospheric images. He graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2005 and is a co-founder of the narrative art magazine and collective LE GUN . He has illustrated novels by Franz Kafka and Herman Melville for the Folio Society, and his work regularly appears in The Guardian and The New Yorker .