Christopher Duggan (1957-2015) was a world-leading historian of Modern Italy. His interest in Italy, initially for the Medieval period, began in his teens and he travelled in the country before and after his undergraduate degree. Duggan earned his D.Phil in History at Merton College, Oxford, on the topic of Fascism’s struggle against the Mafia. In… Read more »
Author type: Non-fiction
Emma Byrne
Dr Emma Byrne is a scientist, journalist, and public speaker. Her training in AI and computational neuroscience sparked a fascination with the decidedly un-computational ways that our minds work. She is co-host and exec-producer of NonFicPod, and frequently appears on Sky News and the BBC talking about the future of artificial intelligence and robotics. She… Read more »
Humphrey Carpenter (Estate of)
Humphrey Carpenter (1946-2005) was born and educated in Oxford, and attended the Dragon School and Keble College. He was a well-known biographer and children’s writer, and worked previously as a producer at the BBC before becoming a full-time author in 1975. He wrote biographies of Tolkien, W.H. Auden, Benjamin Britten, Ezra Pound, Robert Runcie, Archbishop… Read more »
Artemis Cooper
Author of the superb Paris After the Liberation (Penguin, 1994), co-written with Antony Beevor, her Cairo in the War (John Murray Press, 1989) was described as ‘a fascinating and entertaining evocation of a vanished world’ by Penelope Lively. She has also edited the letters of her grandparents: A Durable Fire: The Letters of Duff and… Read more »
Peter Chapman
The Financial Times journalist’s Jungle Capitalists: a Story of Globalisation, Greed and Revolution (2008) was published by Canongate in the UK and, as Bananas: How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World by Grove in the US. The Observer said this about the book: ‘If you only read a handful of non-fiction books this year, Jungle Capitalists is among your… Read more »
Marcus Chown
Marcus Chown is an award-winning writer and broadcaster. Formerly a radio astronomer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, he is a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Brunel University. His books include The Ascent of Gravity (W&N, 2017), which was The Sunday Times Science Book of the Year; The Magicians (Faber & Faber, 2020); Infinity in the Palm… Read more »
Karl Bushby
The former Paratrooper hit the headlines when he was arrested in Russia in April 2006, having become the first man to cross the Bering Straits from Alaska by foot. His first book, Giant Steps, in which he tells the true story of his ongoing record-breaking attempt to walk solo around the world, was published by Little,… Read more »
Tom Butler-Bowdon
Tom is the author of eight books, including 50 Philosophy Classics (2013), 50 Politics Classics (2015), and 50 Psychology Classics, 2nd edition (2017). Bringing important ideas to a wider audience, the 50 Classics series (Nicolas Brealey Publishing), now in 23 languages, is based on the idea that every subject or genre will contain at least 50 books that encapsulate… Read more »
Mary Berry
Bestselling cookery writer and TV star cook, Dame Mary has written over 80 cookbooks, including the classic Mary Berry’s Complete Cookbook (DK, 2017) which has sold over 1.5 million copies internationally and The Complete Aga Cookbook (Headline, 2015). Her career began when she developed a passion for domestic science at school – something she outlines… Read more »
Tim Birkhead
A leading expert on ornithology and evolutionary biology, Tim Birkhead is emeritus Professor of Behavioural Ecology at Sheffield University and a Fellow of the Royal Society. His bestselling book Bird Sense was shortlisted for the Royal Society’s Winton Prize for Science Books in 2013 and What It’s Like to Be a Bird was the winner… Read more »