Romain Sardou was born of a long line of artists, singers, actors, writers, he developed a passion at an early young age for opera - he was just ten years old when he discovered his fascination for Richard Wagner.

He enrolled in theater classes - which he followed for three years - in order to better understand the mechanics involved in the art of stage craft and more clearly discern the acting profession.

Unsatisfied, he settled in the country for four years during which he built up his book collection and read voraciously the works of historians.

The "chill winds of the Devil" isolate the small diocese of Draguan, in the county of Toulouse from the rest of the world.

Before the sight of the statue of the Virgin Mary broken by the cold, Romée de Haquin, its bishop, is not far from thinking that a curse is wreaking havoc on his parishes.

Accompanied by a young boy and by a hideously ugly man, he had been summoned by Haquin to take charge of the thirteenth parish of the diocese, Heurteloup.

The cursed parish, the thirteenth of the bishopric, is so isolated that its name is often omitted from the maps of the provostship, but it does however interest the highest echelons in Rome.

The Holy See is full of rumours, and agitations in the most secret inner circles of the Vatican have had repercussions as far afield as the kingdom of France.

Deep beneath Jerusalem, from the beginning of time, lies an object that could change the world: the Spark of God.

And when, in 1099, the long-awaited news of the liberation of Jerusalem comes at last, the knights promise their aid and protection to the thousands of pilgrims who set off for the Holy Land.

Harold is an orphan and street urchin in the sad, gray industrial never-town of Cokecuttle, in Lancashire, England – and he does not suspect the exceptional adventure awaiting him....