John Foster is a well-known anthologist and poet and has compiled several wonderful collections – WHAM BANG ORANGUTANG being one of the best known (OUP), and he wrote the poem of the title. He travels extensively to help promote his books.
Greg Leavers & Peter Horrobin were compilers of the UK’s bestselling songbook, ‘Mission Praise’. Peter is director of the Ellel Grange Centre for Christian Healing
Sarah Webb is a writer and former children’s bookseller, and is currently the children’s reviewer for the Irish Independent as well as being on the board of Children’s Books Ireland, while being active in events and festivals.
Born in Barmouth, Russell has a first-class degree in Modern Languages from St John’s College Cambridge. He was Caricaturist of the Times Literary Supplement and Film Critic of the Observer, later TV critic of the Observer and Sunday Times. He first chaired Brain of Britain in 2004. His books include biographies of the cartoonist Vicky and the graphic artist Ronald Searle, and he edited the Kenneth Williams Diaries. He is married with 3 sons, and has played jazz trombone and tuba since 1964.
Jessica Adams is the astrologer for Vogue in Australia, and B in the UK and the author of Handbag Horoscopes and The New Astrology For Women. She lives between England and Australia and is the co-editor of Girls’ Night In, Girls’ Night Out – Boys’ Night In, and Big Night Out. These have raised over half a million pounds for War Child, the charity of which Jessica is also a trustee and patron.
Paula Byrne is the author of eight acclaimed works of non-fiction, most recently Hardy Women: Mother, Sisters, Wives, Muses. Earlier books include The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym, The Genius of Jane Austen, and Kick: The True Story of Kick Kennedy. Paula wrote a tie-in book to the award-winning movie Belle. In 2013, to coincide with the bi-centenary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice, Paula wrote an innovative biography The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things. Other books include Mad World (about Evelyn Waugh and the writing of Brideshead Revisited) and Perdita: A Life of Mary Robinson which was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Award. She is the author of two novels, Look to Your Wife and Blonde Venus and was the historical consultant for PBS series Sanditon. She is founder of ReLit, a charity devoted to the mental health benefits of reading. She is married to Sir Jonathan Bate.
Verlyn Flieger is a Professor of English at the University of Maryland and is a specialist in comparative mythology with a concentration in J.R.R. Tolkien. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Celtic, Arthurian, Hindu, Native American, and Norse myth.
Daniel Mendelsohn is a prize-winning writer and critic. His books include the international best seller The Lost, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and many others; a memoir, The Elusive Embrace, a New York Times Notable Book and a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year; a translation, with commentary, of the complete poems of C. P. Cavafy, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year; and two collections of essays. He lives in the Hudson Valley of New York.
Christopher Tolkien, born on 24 November 1924, was the third son of J.R.R. Tolkien. As his father’s literary executor, he devoted over forty years to the publication of his father’s unpublished works, from The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales to Beren and Lúthien and The Fall of Gondolin, and within ‘The History of Middle-earth’ series, and was awarded the Bodley Medal for his services to literature in 2016. He died in January 2020 at the age of 95.
