Helen J. Nicholson was born in Northern Ireland in 1960, and educated in Belfast, in Oadby and at St Hilda's College, University of Oxford. She holds a doctorate from the University of Leicester (1990). Her thesis was the basis of her first book (1993), which studied medieval views of the Templars, the Hospitallers and the Teutonic knights. Since then she has written books on the crusades, the Templars, the Hospitallers and medieval warfare, and most recently on the trial of the Templars. She works at Cardiff University, occasionally appears on the TV or radio, and also maintains a 'Frequently Answered Questions' page on the Crusades and on the Templars.