Charlotte Lydia Riley teaches history at the University of Southampton. Her first book, Imperial Island (Bodley Head, 2023), tells an alternative history of Britain from the Second World War to the present day. The book traces the ways that empire and decolonisation have left their mark on British history, society, politics and culture, and tells the story of… Read more »
Author type: Non-fiction
Emma Smith
Emma is a Professor of Shakespeare Studies at the Oxford Faculty of English and a Fellow of Hertford College. Her first trade book, This is Shakespeare (Pelican, 2019), attracted praise from James Shapiro and Hilary Mantel, among others, and was a Times Book of the Year 2019. Alex Preston called it “the best introduction to… Read more »
Kate McLoughlin
Kate is a Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Harris Manchester College. She has recently been awarded a Major Research Fellowship by the Leverhulme Trust for her project on the history of silence in English. Literature and silence may seem a paradoxical subject, but in its treatment of… Read more »
Natasha Lunn
Natasha is a journalist at Red magazine and the founder of Conversations on Love, an email newsletter investigating love one interview at a time. Through conversations with guests such as Hilary Mantel, Susie Orbach and Lemn Sissay, she hopes to invite readers to think more deeply about all the different forms of love in their… Read more »
Michael Bird
Born in London and educated at Merton College, Oxford, Michael is a writer, art historian and radio broadcaster. He has penned monographs on Lynn Chadwick, Sandra Blow, Bryan Wynter and George Fullard, and written books on the St Ives Artists and ideas that changed art, as well as a journey through 40,000 years of art… Read more »
Thomas Penn
Thomas holds a Ph.D. in medieval history from Clare College, Cambridge, and is an editorial director at Penguin UK. His first book, the bestselling Winter King: Henry VII and the Dawn of Tudor England (Penguin Press UK; Simon & Schuster US, 2011) won the HW Fisher Prize and was named a Book of the Year… Read more »
Matthew Burton
Matthew is an inspirational teacher and star of Channel 4’s multi award-winning documentary series, Educating Yorkshire. His warmth, humour, and energetic style of teaching have endeared him to audiences the country over, with incredible breakthrough moments that brought millions of TV and YouTube viewers to tears. Now a Head (and still an English teacher), he… Read more »
Samantha Walton
Samantha Walton teaches literature at Bath Spa University. Her first book, Everybody Needs Beauty: In Search of the Nature Cure, was published by Bloomsbury in 2021. It tells the story of how and why we seek nature for health and wellbeing, from sacred springs to forest baths, city parks to the brave new world of virtual… Read more »
Nick Potter
Nick Potter’s book The Meaning of Pain: A Radical New Approach to Overcoming Chronic Pain (Short Books, 2019) is a brilliantly thought-provoking examination of how the stress of modern life is making us hurt. An acclaimed osteopath, Potter (‘The man who taught me to breathe’ — Sir Elton John) has 27 years’ clinical experience and is one… Read more »
Svenja O’Donnell
Svenja O’Donnell has worked as a print and television journalist for the past 15 years. As Bloomberg’s UK political correspondent, she was awarded the Washington-based National Press Club’s Breaking News award in 2017 for her coverage of the Brexit referendum. Prior to that role, she reported on a variety of subjects from economics to conflict… Read more »