our authors

Terri Apter is a psychologist, writer and Fellow Emerita of Newnham College Cambridge. She is the author of many critically acclaimed books on family dynamics, including Altered Loves: Mothers and Daughters During Adolescence (a New York Times Notable Book of the Year), and The Confident Child (winner of the Delta Kappa Gamma International Educator’s Prize). Her reviews and articles have appeared in the Guardian, the TLS, the Financial Times, the New York Times Book Review, and the Psychologist, and she is a regular blogger for Psychology Today. Raised in Chicago, she moved to the UK to study at Edinburgh University and Cambridge University, where she has worked ever since. 

Ros Belford spends her time between Salina, Siracusa and Cambridge and is the author of numerous guidebooks to Italy, Sicily and the Mediterranean. She has written articles on travel and food for many magazines and newspapers and is the Telegraph’s Sicilian travel expert. She has made radio programmes for the BBC and contributed to several podcasts.

Lynn Berger (born 1984) is a writer for De Correspondent – the acclaimed Dutch unbreaking news platform – where she covers care. She received her PhD in Communications from Columbia University in 2016. She now lives in Amsterdam.

Dr Sharon Blackie is an award-winning writer, psychologist and mythologist. Her highly acclaimed books, lectures and workshops are focused on the development of the mythic imagination, and on the relevance of myths, fairy tales and folk traditions to the personal, cultural and environmental problems we face today. As well as writing five books of fiction and non-fiction, including the bestselling If Women Rose Rooted and her latest, Hagitude, her writing has appeared in anthologies, collections and in several international media outlets – among them the Guardian, the Irish Times and the Scotsman. Her books have been translated into several languages, and she has been interviewed by the BBC, US public radio and other broadcasters on her areas of expertise. Sharon is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and has taught and lectured at several academic institutions, Jungian organisations, retreat centres and cultural festivals around the world.

Michelle Burford is a No. 1 New York Times bestselling author and a founding editor of O, The Oprah Magazine. She is a Harvard-trained journalist whose work has taken her to more than 35 countries on six continents. A native of Phoenix, Michelle now resides in New York City. Read more about her creations at www.MichelleBurford.com.

Heather Buttivant is a writer and educator who specialises in introducing people to the mysterious wildlife beneath the Cornish waves. Her popular blog, Cornish Rock Pools, won the BBC Wildlife Magazine Blog of the Year Award in 2017 and she has appeared on BBC Countryfile. Her career has included working for Friends of the Earth and the Open University and she is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She has Masters degrees in Professional Writing and Environmental Policy, a tracksuit full of swimming badges and an ‘I love sea slugs’ t-shirt. When she isn’t crawling through seaweed wearing waders or running children’s events for Cornwall Wildlife Trust, Heather likes to hide away and write.

Originally from Catalonia, but resident in the UK for several decades, Jordi Casamitjana is a vegan zoologist specialising in animal behaviour, who has been involved in different aspects of animal protection for many years. In addition to scientific research he has worked as an undercover investigator and animal welfare consultant. Jordi recently became well known for securing the legal protection of all UK ethical vegans from discrimination, in a landmark case that was discussed all over the world.

Rory Cellan-Jones was the BBC’s principal technology correspondent until 2021. He now writes an influential Substack column Always On, and through this and his Twitter account @ruskin147 he spreads awareness of technological developments in the fields of medicine, health care and – more specifically – Parkinson’s, as well as sharing the progress of #SophiefromRomania. Together with Jeremy Paxman and several others he hosts Movers and Shakers, a podcast about Parkinson’s, which won the 2024 Broadcasting Press Guild’s Podcast of the Year award. His other books are Dot.Bomb: The Rise and Fall of Dot.com Britain, Always On: Hope and Fear in the Smartphone Era and, out in autumn 2024, Sophie From Romania: A Year of Love and Hope with a Rescue Dog.

Eve Claxton is a writer, editor and Peabody award-winning radio producer. She’s worked as editor and co-writer on many non-fiction books.

Ronald J. Deibert is professor of Political Science and founder and director of the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto. The Citizen Lab undertakes interdisciplinary research at the intersection of global security, information and communications technologies, and human rights. The research outputs of the Citizen Lab are routinely covered in global media, including more than two dozen reports that received exclusive front-page coverage in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other global media over the last decade. Deibert is the author of Black Code: Surveillance, Privacy, and the Dark Side of the Internet, as well as numerous books, chapters, articles, and reports on internet censorship, surveillance and cybersecurity.

Stephen Ellcock is a curator who has expanded his Facebook page into an online museum of images, visual delights, oddities and wonders drawn from every conceivable culture, era and corner of the globe. He is the author of The Book of Change: Images to Inspire Revelations and Revolutions and All Good Things: A Treasury of Images to Uplift the Spirits and Reawaken Wonder. 

English Heritage cares for over 400 historic buildings, monuments and sites – from world-famous prehistoric sites to grand medieval castles, from Roman forts on the edges of the empire to a Cold War bunker. Through these, we bring the story of England to life for over 10 million people each year.

Andy Field is a performance artist who specialises in human interactions. His work has manifested itself in a variety of places – from theatres and galleries, to warehouses, multistorey carparks, and the streets of towns and cities around the world. Field has played a leading role in the UK’s experimental performance scene over the last fifteen years as co-director of the award-winning artist-led project Forest Fringe, described by the Guardian as ‘an Edinburgh institution [that] spread its wings around the globe and [has] been hailed as the future of theatre’. andytfield.co.uk

Barefoot at the Lake is veterinarian Bruce Fogle’s first memoir. Best known as a prolific author of pet care books and travel narratives Bruce is Canadian by birth and has lived and worked in London since the sixties when there were still cows to be treated in West London dairies. He opened The London Vet Clinic forty years ago and has been treating generations of pets ever since. His pet-care guides with Dorling Kindersley have been published around the world, in multiple languages, making him the world’s bestselling pet-care author.

Previously a highly successful stylist within the fashion industry, for the last twenty years Paul Frecker has been a dealer in nineteenth-century photography, specialising in cartes de visite. Paul’s Instagram account @19thcenturyphotos has over 10,000 followers. He lives in a converted church in the Scottish Highlands.

Nyna Giles is the youngest daughter of Carolyn Scott Reybold. Nyna is chief operating officer for Giles Communications, a leading public relations company. She is also a tireless advocate for the mentally ill, having served as a vice president on the board of the Association for Mentally Ill Children of Westchester for ten years. She lives in Westchester County, New York, with her husband.

Dr Lilia Giugni is a feminist activist, a lecturer in Social Innovation at the University of Bristol and a researcher at the Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation at the University of Cambridge. She co-founded the think tank GenPol – Gender & Policy Insights, holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Cambridge and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Her research interests and advocacy work focus on violence against women and girls, the gendered side of technology and innovation, and the intersections between gender, racial and social injustice. A multidisciplinary researcher, she sits on the board of several charities, social enterprises and feminist networks. She regularly writes articles on women’s rights matters and delivers talks and keynote speeches internationally. T: @liliagiugni

Annie Gray is one of Britain’s leading food historians. She specialises in British food and dining from c.1650–1950, and works as a consultant, broadcaster, speaker and author. Her previous books include The Greedy Queen, Victory in the Kitchen and The Official Downton Abbey Cookbook. She is the resident food historian on BBC Radio 4’s culinary panel programme The Kitchen Cabinet and both consults for and appears in TV programmes such as Victorian Bakers and Victoria and Albert: The Wedding.

David Ziggy Greene is the creator of Scene & Heard, the UK’s only regularly published illustrated reportage as found in Private Eye magazine since 2011. He also publishes in Time Out and Charlie Hebdo.

Brittney Griner is an American professional basketball player. She is a two-time Olympic gold medallist and was additionally named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time magazine.

Sarah Guy has written about restaurants and shops, architecture and walks, for many years. For a decade she was the editor of the Time Out Guide to Eating & Drinking in London. She is the author of London for Dogs (2017) and London on Sea (2018). Bakeries and patisseries are dear to her heart. Whatever form they come in, she thinks they add to the joy of life in the most basic of ways.

Shahnaz Habib is a writer and translator based in Brooklyn. She translates from her mother tongue, the south Indian language of Malayalam, and has translated two novels by Benyamin, Jasmine Days, winner of the 2018 JCB Prize, and Al Arabian Novel Factory. Airplane Mode is her first book.

Andrew Hann is head of the historians team at English Heritage. He specialises in country houses and historic gardens and landscapes, with a focus on the 18th and 19th centuries. He is an economic and social historian, and has published on the history of shopping, urban and industrial change, slavery and the country house, and servant life. Andrew has worked on Audley End since 2007, and was the historical lead on the reinterpretation of the service wing and the live interpretation at Audley.

Joanne Harris MBE was born in Barnsley, studied Modern and Mediaeval Languages at Cambridge and was a teacher for fifteen years. She has written eighteen novels (including Chocolat, which was made into an Oscar-nominated film), two novellas, two collections of short stories, a Doctor Who novella, guest episodes for the game Zombies, Run!, the libretti for two short operas, several screenplays, a musical and three cookbooks. Her books are published in over fifty countries and have won a number of British and international awards. She is currently the Chair of the Society of Authors (SOA) and member of the Board of the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS). You can find her on Twitter @joannechocolat.

Molly Hatch is the daughter of a farmer and painter. She spent her early childhood on an organic dairy farm where he created art from an early age. Working from her home studio, Molly began making her living as a full-time studio potter in 2008. Making contemporary ceramics inspired by history, Molly’s career as a studio potter quickly garnered a loyal following.

Her designs have expanded beyond tableware to a wide range of lifestyle products, and Molly is actively growing her collections of home goods to bring modern yet traditional designs to the contemporary home. She designed her first collection for Anthropologie in 2010 and has designed over 400 products for them since. Her career has led to collaborations with institutions such as the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Clark Art Institute and the High Museum of Art Atlanta.

Eliza Henry-Jones lives on a flower farm on Wurundjeri land in the Yarra Valley of Victoria, Australia. She is the author of In the Quiet (2015), Ache (2017) and the young adult novels P is for Pearl (2018) and How to Grow a Family Tree (2020). Her novels have been listed for awards including the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, QLD Literary Awards, NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, Indie Awards, ABIA Awards and CBCA Awards. Eliza has received residencies at Varuna, the National Writers’ House (NSW) the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers’ Centre (WA), and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig in Ireland (courtesy of Varuna). Her short fiction, nonfiction and features have been widely published across magazines, newspapers and journals. Eliza has qualifications in psychology; alcohol and other drugs; and grief, loss and trauma counselling.

John Howkins is a leading figure in the global understanding of work and creativity. He is the author of the seminal The Creative Economy, which has been translated into 14 languages. He was previously chief adviser to HBO and Time Warner and chair of The London Film School, CREATEC, Tornado and BOP. In 2006, the Shanghai government set up the John Howkins Research Centre on the Creative Economy.

Howkins is a member of the United Nations Advisory Committee on the Creative Economy and advises governments on new concepts in work. He is in wide demand as a speaker and adviser on creativity and innovation, working with individuals, start-ups, companies and governments.

Invisible Work is a visionary framework for the new reality from an author whose work has shaped business and government policy on creativity and innovation in Europe, China and South America.

Samson Kambalu was born in 1975 in Malawi. He lives and works in Oxford where he is an Associate Professor of Fine Art and a lifelong fellow at Magdalen College, Oxford University.

Kambalu has won research fellowships with Yale University and the Smithsonian Institution. His work Antelope will appear on Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth in 2022.

P. J. Kavanagh was a poet, writer, actor, broadcaster and columnist, born in 1931. The Perfect Stranger, awarded the Richard Hillary Memorial Prize in 1966, describes his early life. Poetry was his major occupation. His New Selected Poems came out in 2014, and earlier collections include Presences (1987), An Enchantment (1991) and Something About (2004). His Collected Poems was given the Cholmondeley Award in 1992. His columns for The Spectator and the Times Literary Supplement (he called them substitute poems) are collected in People and Places (1988) and A Kind of Journal (2003). His novel A Song and Dance won the 1968 Guardian Fiction Prize, and he wrote five more. A travel-autobiography Finding Connections traces his Irish forebears in New Zealand. P. J. died in August 2015 in the Cotswold hills, where he had come to live with his wife and two sons over forty years before.

Angela Kiss is a writer and accountant. Born in Hungary, she has lived and worked in London for ten years. She has had three books published in Hungary, one of which was her memoir, One Way Ticket to London, which has been translated into English and self-published as an ebook.

Grace Kitto is a TV producer who lives in Devon with her husband and son. Saving Grace is her first book – an early draft won the Mslexia Memoir Award 2014.

Jennifer Lane is an author and nature writer. She has written for Vogue, The Week, Dazed, the BBC, Wildlife Trusts and the RSPB. She discovered Wicca when she was twelve years old and became fascinated by the craft, and since then has woven together her passion for wildlife with a Pagan lifestyle.

Dee Lauder joined the Collections Conservation Team in 2001 and in 2003 was appointed to lead the delivery of English Heritage’s Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Programme and IPM standards. She is a member of the Pest Odyssey UK Steering Committee, a non-profit organisation advocating IPM in cultural heritage institutions. 

Rebecca Lowe is a freelance journalist, living and working in London, who specialises in human rights and the Middle East. She has written for the Guardian, BBC, Evening Standard, Independent, Economist, Sunday Times Magazine, Daily Mail, Huffington Post and IranWire, as well as numerous travel and consumer magazines. She was previously the lead reporter at the International Bar Association, where she focused on human rights and the rule of law and wrote extensively about the Arab Spring. She holds a BA in English literature from Cambridge University and an MA in journalism from Stanford University, where she was awarded a scholarship. @reo_lowe

Anthony Loyd, author of My War Gone By, I Miss It So, is an award-winning foreign correspondent who has reported from numerous conflict zones including the Balkans, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Iraq and Chechnya. A former infantry officer, he left the British army after the first Gulf War and went to live in Bosnia, where he started reporting for The Times. My War Gone By, I Miss It So is his memoir of that conflict. Most recently, he was kidnapped, shot and then escaped while reporting in Syria.

Dr Emily MacGregor is a writer, broadcaster, and music historian. She appears regularly on BBC Radio 3 and 4, and has written for the Guardian. Her academic CV includes a doctorate from Oxford University and subsequent research positions at Harvard University and King’s College London, where she’s currently based. She’s the author of Interwar Symphonies and the Imagination: Politics, Identity, and the Sound of 1933 (Cambridge University Press) and is winner of the Jerome Roche Prize. Emily cohabits in London with an unapologetically fluffy dog.

Alice Maddicott is a writer and artist from the West Country, where she also works on creative learning and community projects, currently for The Salisbury Museum. She has published poetry and received site-specific art commissions. She is the author of Cat Women: An Exploration of Feline Friendships and Lingering Superstitions and Tender Maps: Travels in Search of the Emotions of Place. 

Ian Marchant has worked for twenty-five years as a writer, broadcaster and performer. His non-fiction books include Parallel Lines, The Longest Crawl, A Hero for High Times, which was long-listed for the Gordon Burn Prize, and now One Fine Day. Ian has presented numerous broadcasts for Radio 3 and Radio 4, in particular on psycho-geography and contemporary rural affairs. He is an intermittent presenter on Radio 4’s long-running Open Country, and a regular diarist for the Church Times. He has written for the Guardian, the Observer, the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Times. He has made numerous appearances as a guest speaker, compere, quizmaster and lounge singer, and is also a creative writing tutor and guest speaker for the Arvon Foundation. He lives in Presteigne with his family.

Geoff Marshall is a freelance video producer, making transport films for Londonist and his own YouTube channel. He is a tour guide for Hidden London, taking people inside abandoned tube stations, and has twice held the world record for travelling to all Underground stations in the fastest time possible.

S. I. Martin works with museums, archives and the education sector to bring diverse histories to wider audiences. He has published four books of historical fiction and non-fiction for adult and teenage readers. Steve founded the 500 Years of Black London Walks 20 years ago in response to the low profile given to the Black historical presence on the capital’s streets and has consistently encouraged and championed the provision of plaques, street names and street furniture to this end. He has worked with and for the Black Cultural Archives, National Maritime Museum, the V&A, Tate Britain, London Metropolitan Archives, National Portrait Gallery, the Horniman Museum, The National Archives, RAF Museum, the Wellcome Trust and many others. He regularly provides workshops and sessions for heritage institutions, schools, borough councils and community groups across the country. He lives in south London.

Abi Millar is a journalist and author living in London. She studied English at Cambridge University and science journalism at City University London, and has written for outlets including Patient, Netdoctor, Elle, Harpers Bazaar, New Statesman and Vice. She is also a yoga teacher who has long been fascinated by the intersection of critical thinking and spirituality. The Spirituality Gap is her first book.

Lindsey Miller is a musical director and award-winning composer. For the last ten years, she has worked in theatres across the UK, Europe, North America and Asia and has most recently worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company. During 2017–19, Lindsey lived in Pyongyang, North Korea, while accompanying her husband on a diplomatic posting. Lindsey is from Glasgow, Scotland. She now lives in Kent.

Rosalind Moody is a writer and former editor of the UK’s leading spiritual magazine, Soul & Spirit. She has been told off in every job she’s ever had for talking too much, and believes she finally has found a vocation for it. She has interviewed many successful people including Caggie Dunlop, Angela Scanlon and Daisy May Cooper and has been a guest on multiple leading podcasts such as Witch on BBC Sounds and White Shores with Theresa Cheung. She’s been featured on radio stations such as Psychic Today, Wellbeing Radio and Hay House Radio, which amassed 2 million listeners in one show. She is a writing coach and also programmes Mind Body Spirit festivals across the UK. She has hosted events for Teal Swan and expert panels for LA-based show Conscious Life Expo. She is a fierce campaigner for getting spirituality into the mainstream so that more people who feel lost can find themselves. She believes in connection, creativity and always having a cup of tea in hand. She lives with her cat in Herne Hill, London. @rosalindmoody

A director of the museum-making company Metaphor, Rachel Morris has been part of the creation, design and delivery of some of the most exciting displays, renovations and museums of the last few decades, from the new Cast Courts at the V&A and the Ashmolean, Oxford to the Terracotta Warriors at the British Museum and Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Rachel is also the author of two novels. @MoMarcoPolo

Ashley Neese is a breathwork teacher and writer. She has studied with some of the world’s leading masters in yoga, meditation, medical intuition and somatic therapy. Her private sessions, workshops, and lifestyle journal guide spirit seekers toward living with their hearts wide open. Ashley works with clients all over the world, including BuzzFeed and WeWork, and has been featured in Goop, Elle Japan, Vogue, Well + Good, MindBodyGreen and the Nourished Journal.

Christopher Nicholson is the author of three novels, including The Elephant Keeper, which was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and Encore Prize, and Winter, described by Alison Lurie in the New York Review of Books as ‘one of the most dramatically convincing and moving Famous Writer Novels I have ever read.’ He has lived near Shaftesbury in Dorset for the past thirty years.

Michael Norton is a social entrepreneur who creates projects that provide innovative approaches to solving problems in society and the world. He has created street children’s banks and village libraries in Asia, helped develop an international network of crisis helplines for children in need, developed projects which promote financial literacy for young people, mental wellbeing of adolescents, collecting and cooking surplus food, environmental awareness and action, community engagement and philanthropy for young people and much more. He is a professor at the China Global Philanthropy Institute in Shenzhen, winner of the 2014 UK Charity Award for lifetime achievement and was awarded an OBE in 1998 for services to the voluntary sector.

Michael Ohajuru is a Senior Fellow of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies with honours degrees in Physics and Art History. Michael blogs, writes and speaks regularly on the black presence in Renaissance Europe and has spoken at the British Library, National Archives and the V&A on the subject. He is the founder of Image of the Black in London Galleries and is the originator and project director for The John Blanke Project. He is the co-convener of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies What’s Happening in Black British History series of workshops and is also co-convenor the Institute of Historical Research Black British History seminar programme. He lives in south London.

Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor was born in Kenya. She is the author of Weight of Whispers and Dust, which was shortlisted for the Folio Prize. Winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing (2003), she has twice received an Iowa International Writers Fellowship and was shortlisted for the FT/OppenheimerFunds Emerging Voices award. Her work has appeared in McSweeney’s, Granta’s ‘The Politics of Feeling’ and other publications, and she has twice been a TEDx speaker (Nairobi and Euston). She has been a resident and fellow in several places including the Lannan Foundation, the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Civitella Ranieri, Dorothea Schlegel and the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies. She spends most of her time in Nairobi, Kenya.

Simon Parker is a British travel writer, author, filmmaker, public speaker and broadcast journalist, working across a wide range of themes and subjects. He has reported on stories as diverse as ‘migrant crisis’ in Greece and social inequality in the barrios of Northern Colombia. He’s paraglided solo through the Andes and driven a rickshaw the length of India. His first book, Riding Out, was published in 2022. All his travels and adventures are shared with his followers at @simonwiparker. 

Emma Parry is a literary agent who believes any good book begins with asking the right questions.

Simon Phipps, born in Leeds, is an artist based in London. He is a graduate in sculpture from the Royal College of Art and a renowned photographer of post-war modernist architecture. He is the author of six books: Brutal London, Finding Brutalism, Concrete Poetry: Post-War Modernist Public Art, Brutal North, Brutal Outer London and now Brutal Wales. Finding Brutalism was a winner of the 2018 DAM Architectural Book Award, Brutal London was a finalist for the British Book and Production Awards 2017, and Brutal Outer London was shortlisted for the 2023 Architectural Book Awards. Phipps’s photographic archive can be seen at www.simonphipps.co.uk and for more – Twitter and Instagram @new_brutalism.

David Pinniger’s passion for insects began as boy helping his entomologist father catch dragonflies. He is the pest management strategy adviser for English Heritage and advises many of the major national museums, galleries and houses in the UK. He is the author of over 60 papers and publications. David is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society. He was awarded the 2008 Plowden Medal for his contribution to preventative conservation and in the same year received an MBE.

Vicki’s interest in the railways lies with the stories of people, social change and how the railways impact on our sense of space and surroundings. For the past 15 years she has worked in museum education. From medieval knights in castles, body snatchers in graveyards to bus drivers on the Western Front, Vicki has collaborated on projects with hundreds of people to uncover, interpret and share the stories of the past, present and future.

Sarah Polley is an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, director and actor. After making short films, Polley made her feature-length directorial debut with the drama film Away from Her in 2006. She received an Oscar nomination for the screenplay, which she’d adapted from the Alice Munro story ‘The Bear Came Over the Mountain’. Her other projects include the documentary film Stories We Tell (2012), which won the New York Film Critics Circle prize and the National Board of Review award for best documentary; the miniseries adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novel Alias Grace (2017); and the romantic comedy Take This Waltz (2011). Her latest project is Women Talking (2023), which she adapted from Miriam Toews novel of the same name. It has been nominated for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars. As a child she starred in the long-running children’s series Road to Avonlea and in Terry Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. @realsarahpolley

Cate Ray writes suspense novels with compelling moral dilemmas, shining a light on the issues affecting women today. Her stories are created for readers to treasure and share with booklovers everywhere. She is the author of four previous novels of suspense published under the name Cath Weeks. She was named an ‘Author to Watch’ by ELLE. Cate lives in Bath with her family. @cateraywriter

Melissa Rice is one half of successful BBC Radio 5 Live podcast Hooked: The Unexpected Addicts, which won Broadcasting Press Guild Radio Programme of the Year 2020, BBC Best Community Podcast 2020 and a Silver British Podcast Award. Melissa was, until 2016, a primary school teacher. After hospitalisation for her alcohol addiction and a period of rehabilitation at Clouds House she submitted a winning pitch for the podcast Hooked: The Unexpected Addicts with her friend from rehab, Jade Wye, for the Rachael Bland New Podcast Award. Hooked’s aim is to debunk the stereotypes of who and what an addict is, interviewing real people, with regular lives, whose voices are rarely heard. With help from the Amy Winehouse Foundation Melissa now lives in London. Sobering is her first book.

Jim Richards became obsessed with finding gold and diamonds in his teens. He went on to be closely involved in numerous mineral discoveries around the world. This includes the Omai gold deposit in Guyana, which became the largest gold mine in South America, and the Railway iron ore deposit in Western Australia, which was acquired by BHP Billiton in 2010 for A$204 million. He has founded a string of successful mining businesses and is today one of the industry’s leading executives. Currently, Jim is executive chairman of an Australian publicly listed minerals corporation. Prior to his prospecting, geology and mining career, Jim served in the British Army Parachute Regiment, with operational experience in Northern Ireland. He was educated at Goldsmiths College, University of London (Geology) and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Jim lives in Perth, Western Australia.

James Roberts is a writer and artist who lives in the hills of the Welsh Border country. His essays and poems have been published widely and his artwork has featured in several exhibitions, books and theatre productions. Two Lights is his first book of non-fiction. nightriverwood.com @nightriverwood

Scottish born Manda Scott has been a veterinary surgeon, novelist, columnist and is now also a podcaster focused on the systemic change. Her novels have spanned genres from crime through historical to Thrutopian, and her eras have spanned from the Boudican insurrection through WWII to the future five minutes from now. She’s been shortlisted for the Orange Prize, an Edgar and the Saltire Award, and has won the McIlvanney Prize. She’s host of the Accidental Gods podcast and co-creator of the Thrutopia Masterclass. She lives with her wife on a smallholding in the borderlands of Wales. @mandascott

A London-born illustrator, artist, surface pattern designer and educator, Alice’s work explores and visualise ideas and narratives through playful treatment of colour, texture and composition. Alice has been commissioned by a wide range of international clients including: Crabtree and Evelyn, Leo Burnett, Stella magazine, Kellogg’s, Faber & Faber, University of Sussex, Volvo, Vodafone, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Vogue, Hugo Boss, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and St Jude’s. 

Emily Stott is a freelance fashion journalist and personal stylist. She has been a mystery shopper for fifteen years during which time she has also worked for Thomas Pink. She says the hardest working item in her wardrobe is her heat tech vest – and the moth repellent. Emily lives in Battersea, London, with her son.

Deborah Hart Strober and Gerald Strober are the co-authors of nine books, including oral histories of the Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan presidencies; and oral biographies of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the evangelist Billy Graham and Rudolph Giuliani. In compiling these works, the Strobers managed to penetrate the inner worlds of more than 500 leading personalities, including US political officials, foreign leaders, members of the British royal family and religious figures. The Strobers live in New York City.​

Corinne Sweet is a broadcaster, screenwriter, psychologist and psychotherapist and author of over fourteen books. These include popular psychology books, such as Change Your Life with CBT, The Mindfulness Journal and The Anxiety Journal, and the bestselling memoirs she has ghosted, Sixty Years a Nurse and Deliver Me from Evil. She is the Chair of the Book Committee of the Writers’ Guild and her books have been translated into over twenty languages.

As the eldest in a family of four, with a mother who is a nurse, care has always been part of Teun Toebes’ life. So, the choice to study Higher Vocational Education nursing and Care Ethics and Policy was a logical step – the choice to work with people living with dementia was not. During a compulsory internship he was introduced to dementia care and has not been able to let go of it since. Currently, Teun contributes to dementia care by not only observing and studying people living with dementia, but by living with them permanently on a closed ward of a nursing home. He focuses on having fun and maintaining personal contact with all his housemates to create moments of happiness and thus improve their quality of life. Teun is the passionate co-founder and ambassador of the Article 25 Foundation. He often appears in the media and is seen as an inspiring face of dementia care in Europe. Teun has won several awards for his work and initiatives, strengthening his mission to make dementia care more humane worldwide.

teuntoebes.com
article25foundation.com

Mark Thomas is one of the UK’s most effective and best-known political performers. He has won awards for his stage and human rights work, ranging from the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award to a Sony Award for Radio Comedy AND was one time Guinness World Record holder for the most demonstrations in one day. He has written and presented six series of the Mark Thomas Comedy Product for Channel 4 and five series of The Manifesto for Radio 4. He is the author of five books on subjects as diverse as the arms trade, Coca-Cola and the Israeli Wall in the West Bank. His work has changed the law, kiboshed politicians’ careers and has been performed across the world.

Vincent van Gogh (1853–90) was a junior clerk at an art firm, teacher, bookseller, student and preacher before he decided at the age of 27 to become an artist. He worked as an artist for just ten years and was virtually unknown throughout his life, but his work changed the history of art forever.

Michael Webster is passionate about the natural world. He is a conservationist, birdwatcher and wildlife filmmaker, and throughout his life has encouraged others to share his love of nature.

Conor Woodman has been a producer, reporter and presenter in factual television for many years. His series include Scam City, Around the World in 80 Trades, Watchdog and, most recently, Hunting Nazi Treasure. He has written two previously books, The Adventure Capitalist and Unfair Trade, which was long listed for the Orwell prize. True Appaloosa, his first feature length documentary film, premiered at the Sun Valley Film Festival in 2015 and aired on BBC4 as The Secret Horse to wide critical acclaim.