ALAN JUDD

Born in 1946, Alan Judd trained as a teacher but instead became a soldier and diplomat. He is now a full-time writer, contributing current affairs articles to various newspapers, most frequently the Daily Telegraph and The Spectator. He is also the author of two accomplished biographies: Ford Madox Ford and The Quest for C, the authorised biography of Mansfield Cumming, founder of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). His nine novels draw on his own military and diplomatic experience: The Devil’s Own Work, a literary ghost story inspired by Judd's meeting with Graham Greene, won the Guardian Fiction Award; The Kaiser’s Last Kiss and Dancing With Eva. His most recent work of fiction is The Uncommon Enemy (2012), the conclusion to his spy thriller trilogy. Alan Judd lives in Sussex.

D J TAYLOR

Born in 1960 DJ Taylor lives in Norwich, where several of his books are set. Educated at Norwich School and Oxford he is a distinguished novelist, critic, biographer - notably of Thackeray (1999); and Orwell: The Life, for which he won the 2003 Whitbread Biography  Award. His numerous novels include English Settlement (1996, winner of Grinzane Cavour prize), Trespass (1998, longlisted for Booker Prize), and Ask Alice (2009). Derby Day (2011) was also Booker Prize longlisted. Taylor’s latest novel, Secondhand Daylight, (2012) is the  sequel to the critically acclaimed At The Chime of a City Clock (2010). He has recently  published a selection of his literary parodies that first appeared in Private Eye, What You  Didn’t Miss. He is married to writer Rachel Hore.

STEPHEN MAY

Norfolk-born writer Stephen May is an award-winning novelist, playwright and TV writer. His first novel, the sharp and funny Tag (2008), was one of ten books longlisted for Welsh Book of the Year and went on to win the Media Wales Readers' Prize, an award voted for by the general public. He returns to King’s Lynn with his acclaimed second novel, Life! Death! Prizes! (2012) which was shortlisted for the Costa prize. In between working on the screenplay for Life!, and teaching creative writing in his home-town in West Yorkshire, Stephen is writing his third novel, Wake Up Happy Every Day, due next year.

JOHN LUCAS

The distinguished poet, novelist and critic, John Lucas is Professor Emeritus at the Universities of Loughborough and Nottingham Trent. He is the author of many academic works, including studies of Dickens and Ivor Gurney and has published seven books of his own poetry. His novels include The Good That We Do (2000) and 92 Acharnon Street (2007), the latter two blending fiction, memoir and social  history. His latest novel is Waterdrops (2011), a story set in wartime Malta - the mystery  attached to which is revealed forty years later. Both The Guardian and The TLS chose his Next Year Will Be Better: A Memoir of England In The 1950s (2010) as their Book of the Year. He runs Shoestring Press and lives in Nottingham.

ROBERT EDRIC

Robert Edric was born in 1956 and has published over 20 novels, including The Broken Lands, A New Ice Age (winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and runner-up to the Guardian Fiction Prize), and three linked crime novels: Cradle Song, Siren Song and Swan Song. He is one of the most critically admired novelists of his generation. His novel, In Zodiac Light, based on the life of the WWI composer & poet Ivor Gurney, was shortlisted for the 2010 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. His titles are always well received - most recently The London Satyr. His latest, The Devils’ Beat, an historical crime thriller, was published last year.

LIZ JENSEN

Liz Jensen was born in Oxfordshire in 1959, to Anglo-Moroccan and Danish parents. She studied English at Somerville College, Oxford, and worked first as a journalist in the Far East, then a TV and radio producer for the BBC in the UK. While in France, she began her first novel, Egg Dancing (1995). Back in London, she wrote Ark Baby (1998), The Ninth Life of Louis Drax (2004), My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time (2006) and The Rapture (2009). Her latest novel, The Uninvited (2012), is a chilling psychological thriller. Her books have been shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction award, nominated for the Orange Prize, developed for film, and translated into more than 20 languages. She has two sons, and is married to Danish writer, Carsten Jensen. She divides her time between London and Copenhagen.

SIMON MAWER

Simon Mawer was born in 1948 and spent his childhood in Britain, Cyprus and Malta. He is author of two non-fiction books and nine novels, the first of which, Chimera, was published in his fortieth year. Later books include Mendel's Dwarf (1998 Booker Prize longlist), The Fall (2005), winner of The Boardman Tasker Award; and Swimming to Ithaca (2006). The Glass Room, published by Little, Brown in 2009, was on the Booker shortlist and is considered by some the best novel in English this century. His current novel is set in the France of WW2, the passionate and gripping thriller, The Girl Who Fell From The Sky (2012). He lives in Italy with his wife and two children and teaches at the English School in Rome.

MICHAEL HOLROYD

Biographer Michael Holroyd was born in 1935 and was educated at Eton College. His first book was his 1964biography of the writer Hugh Kingsmill. The publication in 1967 and 1968 of his biography of Lytton Strachey was

hailed as a landmark in contemporary biography. The four volumes of his life of Bernard Shaw appeared between 1988 and 1992 to critical acclaim, securing his place as one of the most influential modern biographers. He was Chairman of the Royal Society of Literature (2003-2008) and has written for radio and television. In 1989 he was awarded the CBE for services to literature. In Holroyd's latest book, On Wheels (2012), he traces his relationship with cars through a lifetime of biography, weaving memoir and historical

anecdote. He is married to novelist Margaret Drabble and lives in London and Somerset.

ROSE TREMAIN

Novelist Rose Tremain was born in 1943 in London. Her multi-prizewinning career is a great example of how a highly literary writer can become a popular one. She was educated at the Sorbonne and is a graduate of the University of East Anglia, where she taught creative writing from 1988-95 with Malcolm Bradbury. Her publications include novels and short-story collections, a children’s book, biography (Stalin) and she is also the author of a number of radio and television plays. Her first novel, Sadler's Birthday, was published in 1976. Her most recent novels are Trespass (2010) and Merivel: A Man of His Time (2012), a sequel to the Booker shortlisted Restoration (1989). She reviews and broadcasts regularly for press and radio, and lives in Norfolk and London. Rose Tremain was awarded a CBE in 2007.