Born in Trois-Rivères, Quebec, Canada in 1953, Diane Lacombe grew up in a family of five girls. After studying graphic communications and psychology at university, Diane freelanced in the field of journalism for ten years. She then held the position of documentation project manager in the communications department of a government agency where she worked for fifteen years. In fall 1995, Diane Lacombe travelled to Great Britain with her elder sister, both long attracted by the European Anglo-Saxon world. It was during this three-week trip that she first set foot in Scotland, and where, unbeknownst to her, she was collecting ideas for stories that would incubate for five years before taking form. A Trilogy in the Making In March 2000, Diane took six months' leave of absence from work. During this time off, her days of total freedom were spent writing for her own enjoyment. She would send chapters, as each was completed, to her sisters who, week after week, devoured what would turn out to be a gripping tale of love and adventure. Following her return to work and further to urgings from family and friends, Diane agreed to have a limited edition of the story printed which she distributed to her friends and family members throughout 2001. Concurrently, the manuscript was submitted to VLB Éditeur, which published it in 2002 by the name of La Châtelaine de Mallaig (The Lady of Mallaig). This medieval novel set in the Scottish Highlands was an immediate success, and in just four years' time, 200,000 avid readers in Quebec and France had purchased a copy - quite a feat for a previously unknown author. Read the first chapter of The Lady of Mallaig here In spring 2003, eager to devote her time entirely to writing and with her readers clamouring for more, Diane Lacombe resigned from her job to immerse herself completely in the writing of her second novel Sorcha de Mallaig, (Sorcha of Mallaig), published one year later in March 2004. While working on the second book, Diane returned to Scotland for fifteen days in summer 2003 to carry out further research on her subject matter. This visit would also provide ample material for a third novel, L'Hermine de Mallaig (The Rise of Mallaig Castle), already germinating in her mind. This third volume of the Mallaig trilogy, published in April 2005, would be the most historical of the three. With the entire Mallaig trilogy finding many followers among French-speaking readers in Canada and Europe, sales reached 400,000 copies by spring 2006. Portugal and the Czech Republic bought the translation rights for the first volume, and the Czech version of La Châtelaine of Mallaig was the first translation to be published, appearing in summer 2006. Why History? Diane Lacombe's novels are works of fiction. Her heroines, and Mallaig as depicted in her stories, are the fruit of her imagination. In fact, the actual Mallaig, an Inner Hebrides port, was not established until the XIX century. The setting for her novels, however, does reflect, as accurately as can be, the realities of life in medieval Scotland. Moreover, some of her secondary characters have a historical reference, in particular, the kings of Scotland and the members of their royal courts. And their relationship to the trilogy's main characters, while purely fictional, remains completely plausible. Little attracted by fantastic literature, Diane Lacombe gives great importance to the authenticity of her accounts and nothing stimulates her more than to think that her stories could have really occurred, six centuries ago, in this far-away place. Moreover, one cannot explain the author's work without mentioning her unabiding passion for the Middle Ages, an era she finds fascinating, that she has studied since her teens and which provides her with a never-ending source of inspiration. Why Scotland? Ireland, the Isle of Man, Wales, Brittany and Scotland all have much in common, including their music, Gaelic languages and entrelac motifs. They are part and parcel of this ancient, medieval world that underpins Diane Lacombe's fictional works and feeds her passion for all things Celtic. It was Scotland, however, that the author found most enchanting when contemplating where in Northern Europe to situate her medieval tales. And soon, her Highlands research began revealing many intriguing similarities with Quebec: the linguistic duality characteristic of this region in the XV century, the country's political alliance with France against England, the organization of society around the clans and the lure of the wilderness, not to mention, Scotland's flora, fauna, geology and oceanic climate. Such similarities are undoubtedly integral to Diane's adeptness at capturing the authentic spirit of this northern region in her novels and at moving her readers to the point where they are prompted to go and explore for themselves the land and its history. Indeed, summer 2006 saw the author travel to Scotland with a group of forty trilogy fans. It was a special ten-day tour on the trail of the ladies of Mallaig, featuring visits to the Highlands, the Lochs and numerous remnants of the Middle Ages - the very world that her characters call home.