James Barr has worked in politics, at the Daily Telegraph, in the city and as a political officer at the British Embassy in Paris. He now runs his own research business. In 2006, Bloomsbury published his history of the Arab revolt during the First World War, Setting the Desert on Fire. In 2011 he followed this with A Line in the Sand, Britain, France and the struggle that shaped the Middle East (Simon & Schuster), which earned brilliant reviews. His latest book, Lords of the Desert: Britain’s Struggle with America to Dominate the Middle East, published in August 2018 (Simon & Schuster), tells the story of the rise of America and the fall of Britain in the Middle East. Some of its praise includes, ‘a dramatic, absorbing account’ by Prospect and ‘a riveting tale of Great Power competition, skulduggery and backstabbing’ by The Sunday Times. 

The Arena: Three Thousand Years of Conflict in the Middle East, a sweeping history of the great power conflict in the region, was recently acquired by Headline in a “heated” six-way auction.

Dr Mark Avery writes mostly on birds, their biology and their conservation. He worked for the RSPB for 25 years – first as a scientist but for nearly 13 years as Conservation Director. In 2011 he left the RSPB to go freelance. He writes a daily blog on UK nature conservation issues and regularly for British Wildlife, BBC Wildlife and Birdwatch magazines. He lives in rural Northamptonshire.

Jonny edited Karl Bushby’s diary, Giant Steps: The Remarkable Story of the Goliath Expedition from Punta Arenas to Russia (Sphere, 2007). He writes for the Daily Telegraph and a number of other publications, primarily about the countryside. He also does a rather fine line in recycled fur hats.

Johnny is the author of several books including Preserved (Kyle Cathie, 2005) and The Man Who Touched the Sky (Hodder, 2002), which was described as ‘a fascinating and exhilarating read’ by Sir Richard Branson. He co-authored The Football Book with David Goldblatt. In 2012, he and David published How To Watch the Olympics (UK: Profile; US: Riverhead), which was an Observer, Independent and Independent on Sunday sports Book of the Year. In 2015, they published The Time Travel Handbook: From the Eruption of Vesuvius to the Woodstock Festival (UK: Profile; US: Harper Design).

Ben Ambridge is Professor of Psychology at the University of Manchester. His first book, Psy-Q: You Know Your IQ – Now Test Your Psychological Intelligence (Profile Books, 2015), was translated into fifteen languages worldwide, and was shortlisted in the Popular Science category for the British Medical Association book awards. His follow-up, Are You Smarter Than a Chimpanzee? (Profile Books, 2017) led to an appearance on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch, while his TED talk on The Top 10 Myths of Psychology has been viewed over 2½ million times. Ben has written as a regular columnist for the Guardian/Observer and The Big Issue.

Ben’s latest book, The Stories of Your Life (Macmillan, 2024) shares fascinating lessons about the nature of humanity, the power of psychology and – most importantly – the way we see ourselves.

James Attlee is the author of Isolarion: A Different Oxford Journey (2007), Nocturne: A Journey in Search of Moonlight (2011), Station to Station: Searching for Stories on the Great Western Line (2015, shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year) and Guernica: Painting the End of the World (2017) among other titles, as well as numerous essays, chapters and newspaper articles, mainly concerning art and books. His digital fiction The Cartographer’s Confession, free to download from the App Store and Google Play, won the if: book New Media Writing Prize 2017. He has worked in publishing for over two decades, including 10 years at Tate Publishing in London.

John Batchelor is Emeritus Professor of English at Newcastle University and a former tutorial Fellow of New College Oxford. He has now returned to Oxford and is a member of the Senior Common Room at New College.

In a long writing career he has moved away from academic books to books for the general reader. His recent work includes The Life of Joseph Conrad: A Critical Biography (Blackwell, 1995), John Ruskin: No Wealth but Life (Chatto & Windus, 2000), Lady Trevelyan and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (Chatto & Windus, 2006) and Tennyson: To Strive, To seek, To Find (Chatto & Windus, 2012). In May 2021, How the Just So Stories Were Made: The Brilliance and Tragedy Behind Kipling’s Celebrated Tales for Little Children was published by Yale University Press.