About Helena P. Schrader
Helena P. Schrader is the author of 22 historical novels and six non-fiction history books. She earned a PhD in History from the University of Hamburg and served as a U.S. diplomat in Europe and Africa. She has won numerous literary awards, including the Grand Prize for Fiction in the 2026 IndieReader Discovery Awards. Two of her titles have also achieved #1 Bestseller Status on Amazon in the categories Aviation and Wartime Fiction.
Schrader masterfully blends meticulous historical research with compelling storytelling. Her success can best be measured not by awards or positive reviews, but by the fact that witnesses of the history she describes praise the authenticity of her works. Battle of Britain ace, W/Cdr Bob Doe enthusiastically declared that “Where Eagles Never Flew” got it “smack on the way it was for us fighter pilots.” Likewise, “Traitors for the Sake of Humanity: A Novel of the German Resistance” won recognition for its extraordinary sensitivity to a complex topic from the survivors of the military conspiracy against Hitler and the widows of some of those executed.
The dramatic siege of Malta in WWII attracted Schrader’s attention years ago, and she has visited the island several times to conduct research, visit the important sites, and gain a greater understanding of the people. She was unable to resist the temptation to combine a novel about the siege of Malta with another of her lifelong loves, the British Merchant Navy. Schrader has been an avid sailor all her life and served as a petty officer in the British Merchant Navy on sail training ships in her youth.