Piers Paul Read, FRSL, is a novelist, biographer and historian. During his career he has won the SoA’s Somerset Maugham Award for his novel Monk Dawson, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his book A Season in the West, and had his novels adapted for television and film. Alive. The Story of the Andes Survivors was his…
Gillian Reynolds, MBE is a radio critic, journalist and broadcaster. She has been a radio critic at the Daily Telegraph since 1975 and previously held the same post at the Guardian. She is also a Fellow of The Radio Academy and the Royal Television Society and was awarded her MBE in 1999.
J.K. Rowling, OBE, FRSL is a novelist, screenwriter and author of the Harry Potter series which has sold over 450 million copies, are distributed in more than 200 territories and translated into 79 languages. She has written four books since, including The Casual Vacancy, her first novel for adults and, under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, The Cuckoo’s Calling, The…
Anne Sebba is a non-fiction writer, biographer, lecturer and journalist. Her books have predominantly focused on iconic women in 20th century history including Mother Teresa, Laura Ashley, Jennie Churchill, Wallis Simpson and a history of women reporters. She served as Chair of the Management Committee from 2012 to 2014.
Lemn Sissay’s published his first poetry collection at the age of 21. Since then, his work has included seven more collections, eight plays, his Landmark Poem installations in Manchester and London, as well as collaborations with recording, visual and performance artists. He was the first Black Writers Development Worker in the North of England. He established Cultureword,…
Hilary Spurling, CBE, FRSL is a British journalist and biographer. She won the Whitbread Prize for her biography on Henri Matisse, and was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 2010 for her book Burying The Bones: Pearl Buck in China. She was also awarded the SoA’s Travelling Scholarship, the Duff Cooper prize and Heyward Hill…
Claire Tomalin worked in publishing, then as a journalist, becoming Literary Editor of the New Statesman and later the Sunday Times. She has written biographies of Mary Wollstonecraft, Katherine Mansfield, Jane Austen, Samuel Pepys, Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens and others.
Joanna Trollope, CBE is the author of nineteen contemporary novels and in 2012 was chair of the Orange Prize for Fiction. She won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award for her novel Parson Harding’s Daughter. In 1996 she was appointed CBE. Joanna is a Trustee of the National Literacy Trust, Trustee of the Royal literary Fund…
Sarah Waters, OBE has written six novels including Tipping the Velvet, The Night Watch and The Paying Guests. She has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Orange Prize and Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction. Her novel Affinity was also awarded the SoA’s Somerset Maugham Award and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. She served on the Management Committee from…
Jacqueline Wilson, DBE, FRSL is a children’s author best known for her book The Story of Tracy Beaker and more recently the Hetty Feather series. She was the UK Nominee for the international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2014 and has won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award, the Whitbread Children’s Book Award and the Smarties Medal. She is…
Joanne Harris, OBE is an author of nineteen novels in varying genres, including Chocolat, two collections of short stories, a Dr. Who novelette, various stage musical projects and three cookbooks. Joanne’s books have been published in over 50 countries and have won a number of British and international awards. She succeeded David Donachie as Chair of the…
