Diane Beausoleil was born in Nice, France, in 1958 to a Czechoslovakian mother and a Belgian father, originally from Algeria. Blind from the age of six months old, she learned Braille at five and typing at eight to enter the normal school educational system. At home, she immersed herself in works of the classical repertoire, recorded by the great actors of the time, and listened to "The Rite of Spring" by Igor Stravinsky. After obtaining her baccalaureate the age of seventeen, she followed the classe preparatoire of hypokhâgne and Khâgne, at the end of which she obtained a license followed by a master's degree in modern literature at the University of Nice. For five years she taught literature to visually impaired college students, then left the national education system to indulge in her two passions: opera singing and writing. Settled in Cannes, France, she got her first guide dog, after being trained as a physiotherapist to "acquire a place in society" (as she says), an activity she carried out for 22 years in Cannes-La-Bocca. Her origins put her in contact with different cultures very early on. Eager to expand her world knowledge, she learned a dozen of foreign languages, including Japanese and Hebrew, and travelled in Europe, America and North Africa. "The Insurgent with Shadow Eyes" is her fourth novel. She was inspired by the character of a famous anarchist activist, Louise Michel, who alongside her job as a teacher, gave readings to the blind. This is how the character of Sylvie was born and whose blindness did not prevent her from participating in the insurrection of the Commune.

The cover was drawn by 12-year-old Katia Chetkova. By proposing to the publisher to draw the cover of this second book, the young Katia launched the idea of the drawing competition for the best cover, an international competition which is part of the dissemination of the French language around the world, interculturality and awareness of young people on the subject of disability.