Maurice Druon (1918–2009) was a French novelist, Resistance fighter, and member of the Académie Française. Best known for his multi-volume saga The Accursed Kings (Les Rois Maudits), he was often called “the French Tolkien of historical fiction.” His novels plunge into 14th-century France, when papal decrees, arranged marriages, and whispered betrayals shaped the fate of Europe.

Druon doesn’t romanticise the Middle Ages; he makes them feel brutally alive. His characters are ambitious, scheming, and hungry for survival. Each page brims with poison, silk, firelight, and the cold steel of power. George R. R. Martin has cited Druon as a major influence on A Song of Ice and Fire — but Druon’s intrigues don’t need dragons. History itself provides the terror.