Edith Maud Hull (1880-1947) was a British writer of romance novels best known for The Sheik, which became an international best seller. The Sheik is credited with setting off a major and hugely popular revival of the "desert romance" genre of romantic fiction. Hull followed The Sheik with several other novels with desert settings, such as The Shadow of the East, The Desert Healer, and The Sons of the Sheik.