Alice is the award-winning author of twinned works of fiction and non-fiction. Her first two books explore overlapping cultural and geographical territory in Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and Tibet. Empires of the Indus: The Story of a River, published in 2008, won six prizes in Britain, Pakistan, France and Italy. Leela's Book, published in 2011, was long-listed for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature and shortlisted for the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award. Her two new books are about Britain and its islands. Her novel, Cwen, set on an archipelago off the east coast of Britain which comes under female rule, was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and Scotland’s National Book Awards. The Britannias, a portrait of Britain which knocks the centre out, is published soon by Allen Lane/WW Norton. Alice worked as a journalist and an editor in Delhi and London and teaches creative writing in schools and universities. 

Marina Benjamin's books include the memoirs Last Days in Babylon (longlisted for the Wingate Prize), The Middlepause (finalist for the Art Foundation's Creative Non-fiction Award) and Insomnia. Her essays have appeared in Granta, Aeon and the Paris Review and her journalism is published in Prospect, The Guardian, The New Statesman and  New York Times. Her latest memoir A Little Give completes her midlife trilogy.

Website: Marina-benjamin.com

Social Media @Marinab52 [Twitter] @Marinabenjamin.bsky.social

Tim has been a science junky from a young age, and for as long as he can remember has wanted to understand how things worked. On seeing the sea for the first time as a toddler, he stared at the waves for a while before asking his parents ‘why do they go and up and down’. His teachers at Barton C of E Primary School, Comberton Village College, and then Hills Road Sixth College – all state schools in Cambridgeshire – encouraged his love of science. After completing his A-levels, Tim spent a year teaching in rural Zimbabwe with the organisation Project Trust, before returning to the UK to study Biology at the University of York. He went on to be awarded a doctorate from Imperial College London in 1994, before working for the Zoological Society of London, the University of Cambridge, Imperial College and then, from 2013, the University of Oxford where he is Professor of Biology, joint head of the Department of Biology, and a professorial fellow of Jesus College.

Tim’s first book, “A Universal History of Me: What Had to Happen Since the Big Bang for You to Exist” summarises what he has learned about how the universe works. It covers topics from particle physics to cosmology, evolution of the genetic code to the rise of civilisations, and the formation of our solar system to the emergence of consciousness, while examining if our existence was inevitable at the birth of the universe or whether we are just incredibly lucky.

Tim’s research investigates the ecological and evolutionary consequences of altering predator population sizes on natural ecosystems, and this will be the focus of his next book. He uses a mix of mathematical models, observations of animals in their natural environments, and experiments in the laboratory. He’ll keep the equations out of the book in the hope it will be widely read.

Tim lives with his wife, Sonya, and dog Woofler, in Oxford. His three grown up children regularly visit, despite Tim’s experimental approach to cooking. He continues to optimistically believe he can combine the most incompatible ingredients to make an edible meal. Usually he can’t but there is very little food waste.

Website: https://sites.google.com/view/oue2d/home (still under construction...)

Bradley Garrett is a cultural geographer, explorer, and photographer. He is the author of five books translated into four languages and over fifty journal articles and book chapters. He has also written for The Atlantic, the Guardian, Vox, and GQ, and his research has been featured on media outlets worldwide including the The Joe Rogan Experience, National Geographic, 60 Minutes, and in a wide-range of BBC programmes.

More about Brad’s work can be found on his website www.bradleygarrett.com and he in on most social media channels @goblinmerchant 

Ferdia Lennon was born in Dublin to an Irish mother and a Libyan father. He holds a BA in History and Classics from University College Dublin and an MA in Prose Fiction from the University of East Anglia. His short stories have appeared in publications such as the Irish Times and the Stinging Fly. In 2019 and 2021, he received Literature Bursary Awards from the Arts Council of Ireland. After spending many years in Paris, he now lives in Norwich with his wife and son. Glorious Exploits is his debut novel.

Website link: https://www.ferdialennon.com/

Instagram link: https://www.instagram.com/ferdialennon/

Xiaolu Guo is a Chinese British novelist, memoirist and filmmaker. Her novels include A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, and I Am China. Her memoir Once Upon A Time In The East won the National Book Critics Circle Award 2017 and shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize. Her recent novel A Lover’s Discourse, shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2020 and longlisted for the Orwell Prize. Radical, A Life of My Own is published by Vintage and Grove in 2023. My Battle of Hastings will be published by Chatto, 2024. Named as a Granta’s Best of Young British Novelist in 2013, she also directed a dozen films, including How Is Your Fish Today (Sundance Official Selection) and UFO In Her Eyes (TIFF). Her feature She, A Chinese received the Golden Leopard Award at the Locarno Festival 2009. Her documentary We Went to Wonderland was in the Official Selection of ND/NF at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. Once Upon A Time Proletarian was selected for the Horizon Section at Venice Film Festival 2009. She had her film retrospectives at London’s Whitechapel Gallery 2019 and Cinematheque Switzerland 2011, as we as at the Greek Film Archive in Athens 2018. She was a visiting professor at Columbia University and Baruch College in New York. Guo is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Andrew Harding is an author and foreign correspondent who has spent the past three decades living and working in Africa, Asia, and the former Soviet Union. His books and his reporting for BBC News – often focused on conflict zones, including Ukraine - have won him international recognition including a US Emmy and South Africa’s top literary prize.

Andrew has written three acclaimed non-fiction novels. The Mayor of Mogadishu (2016) told the story of a charismatic brawler who fled Somalia’s civil war for the UK, only to return years later to try to build peace in the ruins of Somalia’s capital. His next book, These Are Not Gentle People, tracked an explosive double murder case in a South African farming community wracked by poverty and racial tensions. His latest book, A Small, Stubborn Town, focuses on a little-known battle that helped change the course of the war in Ukraine, capturing the drama through the lives of a handful of local volunteers.

After fifteen years living in South Africa, Andrew recently moved to France as the BBC’s Paris correspondent. He is married and has three grown-up sons.

Author’s website: www.andrew-harding.com and twitter is @AndrewWJHarding