Seb Emina began his career as a writer and editor in 2005 when he founded a website called TheLondon Review of Breakfasts. It became something of a cult success, and was followed by a book entitled The Breakfast Bible (Bloomsbury, 2013), but, not wanting to be typecast, he left it behind and began writing on other subjects. Soon he became editor-in-chief of The Happy Reader, a literary magazine published by Penguin; it was a role he held for a decade, from its launch until its final issue in 2023.
These days he’s a regular name on many mastheads, not least those of Fantastic Man and The Gentlewoman, and his interviews with celebrities and other notable figures have led to him travelling to all places from Montecito in California (a session with Julia-Louis Dreyfus) to Mount Athos in Greece (several orthodox monks). His blogging roots are augmented by his magazine-making skills in the form of an email newsletter called Read Me. With Daniel John Jones, he’s the creator of artworks themed around everyday life and the cycles of clock time, most recently the Lovie-shortlisted Infraordinary FM. Originally from London, Seb now lives in Paris.
Emma Winter has a degree in American Literature and Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and San Francisco State. Her short fiction has been published in journals such as Banshee, The Nottingham Review and Every Day, A Century, and her story ‘Grey, Orange on Maroon, No.8’ was shortlisted then highly commended for the 2026 Scottish Arts Trust Edinburgh Flash Fiction Awards.
Ruby Gray is a historian and presenter specialising in classic literature and social history. After completing her History of Science Masters at the University of Cambridge, she began a career in factual entertainment television. She worked on a range of productions, spanning history, health, travel and BBC Glastonbury coverage.
In May 2025 Ruby launched Too Long Didn’t Read on Instagram. In this series she dresses up as characters from classic literature and summarises their plots, with a mission to make classic literature more accessible to wider audiences. Ruby uses her producing experience to bring out the compelling parts of the story and immerse her viewers in alternate worlds. The series has led to press coverage, public speaking events and an affiliation with the National Gallery. Her videos have been played in school classrooms and have amassed over 18 million hits across social media platforms.
Ruby’s first book will be published by Penguin in Spring 2027.
Maddy Accalia (she/they) is an award-winning writer and producer from Brighton, working across theatre, fiction and poetry. Their plays have been performed at Vault Festival, Norwich Theatre and the Roundhouse, where they were a Resident Artist from 2021-3. As a poet, they have been published in Bath Magg and Ink Sweat and Tears, and were commissioned by University College Hospital London to write a poem for Our NHS Stories; a national campaign celebrating 75 years of the NHS. In 2024, Maddy was awarded a Developing Your Creative Practice Grant from Arts Council England to develop their fiction writing, and in 2025, they were made an awardee of the London Writers Award with the London Writers Centre.
Matt Oliver is Industry Editor at The Telegraph, where he covers manufacturing, energy policy, the automotive sector and the defence industry. He was previously a special correspondent at the paper and has reported on business for the Daily Mail and on politics and local government for the Oxford Mail. His journalism focuses on the industries and companies shaping Britain’s economy, along with the policies that govern them.
Matt’s first book will chart how entrepreneur Greg Jackson built Octopus Energy into Britain’s largest energy supplier in less than a decade.
Ricky Nathvani is an environmental data scientist and writer. He is currently Senior Geospatial Data Scientist at BirdsEyeView, where he forecasts the impacts of natural hazards and climate change around the world. Before getting swept up in the unstoppable tide of data, he started as a physicist with a Master’s from Oxford and a PhD from UCL.
Alongside his research career, Ricky has been a science communicator for over a decade. An awardee of the 2017 Naked Scientists Prize he produced and presented several popular science segments for BBC local radio. He has also written over 125 credited science videos for popular YouTube channels including SciShow, Crash Course, Study Hall and Veritasium, which have collectively amassed over 68 million views. His short story “Beam Therapy” was shortlisted for the Quantum Shorts fiction writing prize in 2017. He was scientific consultant for the 2023 BBC Radio 4 drama “What’s Love Got to Do with it?” and consultant script editor for the educational app “Operation Outbreak”.
He is currently working on the proposal for a book about healthy cities that was a recipient of the 2025 Wellcome Collection Non-Fiction Award.
Dr. Meredith Elkins is a clinical psychologist specializing in the research and treatment of anxiety and related disorders in children and families. She is a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and the co-program director at the McLean Anxiety Mastery Program (MAMP) at McLean Hospital, an intensive outpatient program for youth with anxiety disorders. She has been featured in such media outlets as The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, Parents, and Harvard Gazette.
Hermione Taylor is an economics writer for the Investors’ Chronicle at the Financial Times. She specialises in breaking down complex ideas for readers and has won awards for her features on topics such as quantitative tightening and the natural rate of interest. Before journalism, Hermione taught economics at the London School of Economics and spent many years as an A-level teacher and examiner. She is passionate about economics outreach, and regularly appears on podcasts and at events.
Hermione is currently working on a proposal on Why We Buy Stupid Stuff.
Dr Rebecca Marks has a PhD in English Romantic literature (University of Cambridge), a Masters in Art History (The Courtauld Institute) and a first-class undergraduate degree in English (University of Oxford). She specialises in the visual work of William Blake and his circle, and has been teaching Romantic English Literature at the University of Cambridge for the last four years.
Her academic research has been published in The Cambridge Quarterly, The British Art Journal, and Blake / An Illustrated Quarterly, for which she also serves on the advisory board. In 2023 she was awarded the Richard D. Gooder essay prize for contributions to visual studies. She regularly reviews books on Romantic art for Eighteenth Century Studies and Romanticism. She has presented her work at conferences across the world, spoken at museums, schools, and universities, and even rediscovered a lost drawing by William Blake.
Since finishing her PhD, she has focused her energies on growing a robust online presence. This has led to sponsorships from HENI (luxury art books), MUBI (art-house cinema streaming service), and an affiliation with The National Gallery. Her work has begun to attract attention in the wider media, and she has been interviewed on the Philosophy Everyday and Creative Rebels podcasts.
For much of his adult life David worked as a producer of both documentaries and drama for television and the cinema. Several have been nominated for awards including Inspector Morse (BAFTA & RTS award winner), Wide-eyed and Legless, Moll Flanders and Richard III.
He lives at Harewood in Yorkshire, which has been his family’s home since the 18th century and for many years chaired Harewood House Trust, the educational charitable trust that looks after the House, gardens and collections for the public benefit. Following the death of his father in 2011, he became the 8th Earl of Harewood.
He is one of the founders of Heirs of Slavery, a campaign group that supports reconciliation and reparative justice to redress the horrors of the Transatlantic slave trade.
He has travelled widely in the Himalayas and in 2004 invited a group of monks from Bhutan to come to Harewood and build a stupa, a Buddhist monument. His first book, A Hare-Marked Moon (Unbound, 2021), describes the experience.
