Ken Follett

Ken Follett is a Welsh author who built his early career on espionage thrillers, most notably Eye of the Needle, before becoming one of the bestselling historical fiction writers of his generation with the Kingsbridge series. Beginning with The Pillars of the Earth in 1989, a sprawling novel centered on the building of a fictional English cathedral in the twelfth century, the series became an unlikely commercial phenomenon for a doorstop-length work of literary historical fiction, praised for making medieval architecture, politics, and craft genuinely gripping. Follett expanded Kingsbridge across multiple prequels and sequels spanning from the Dark Ages through the Reformation, including World Without End and The Evening and the Morning. Beyond Kingsbridge, Follett is known for the Century Trilogy, following five interconnected families through the entire twentieth century's major upheavals, and for meticulous historical research that grounds even his most sweeping narratives in verifiable detail. New readers should start with The Pillars of the Earth, the series' foundational and most acclaimed entry. The Pillars of the Earth was adapted into a television miniseries in 2010. Follett continues to publish new historical epics and remains one of the genre's most consistently bestselling authors worldwide.