For over five centuries, Nostradamus has enjoyed an unrivalled reputation for his claimed  abilities to predict the future—from the Great Fire of London, to the rise of Adolf Hitler to the attack on the World Trade Center  In this definitive biography, Oxford-educated and bestselling historian Ian Wilson has turned to the seer’s little-known private letters to reveal fascinating new details about his career, from his remedies for the Black Plague to his ambitious matrimonial match-making for France’s King Charles IX. Objective and in-depth, Nostradamus extracts the facts and exposes the man behind the legend for the first time. It reveals a complex, family-loving individual who in his own lifetime influenced powerful political figures far removed from his home base in France, and who has continued to command a reputation as a prophet second to none. “Wilson's book is by far the most accurate and comprehensive account of
Nostradamus's life since Brind'Amour . . . wonderfully researched and fully documented.”
--Peter Lemesurier, author of The Nostradamus Encyclopedia and The Unknown Nostradamus
 
"[A] fair-minded treatment of a character with an enduring hold on the popular imagination."
--Kirkus Reviews
 
“Wilson [treats] Nostradamus as a man rather than a mysterious presence.”
--Publisher’s Weekly  Ian Wilson has a degree in history from Oxford University and is the author of the highly acclaimed bestsellers The Turin Shroud, The Blood and the Shroud, and Jesus: The Evidence. His most recent book is Murder at Golgotha. Wilson lives in Queensland, Australia.