Our authors include:
Maxine Ali is a linguist and medical writer with a BA in English Language and Linguistics, and a MSc in Medical Humanities from King’s College London. Maxine’s MSc thesis examined the role of disembodying language in female experiences of eating disorders, obesity and disability, and her PhD research interest is in how the language of health impacts body image, self-concept and identity.
She has written for Women’s Health UK, BBC World Service, The Big Issue, Not Plant Based, Nourishment Network, and other online magazines and websites, and speaks publicly about the importance of creating a healthy conversation around food and bodies. Her work has also featured in GQ, Grazia and Marie Claire, among others.
Agent: Julia Silk
Agent: Charlotte Atyeo
Juliet Bell is the collaborative pen name of respected authors Janet Gover and Alison May.
Juliet was born at a writers’ conference, with a chance remark about heroes who are far from heroic. She was raised on pizza and wine during many long working lunches, and finished her first novel over cloud storage and skype in 2017.
Juliet shares Janet and Alison’s preoccupation with misunderstood classic fiction, and stories that explore the darker side of relationships.
Alison also writes commercial women’s fiction and romantic comedies and can be found at www.alison-may.co.uk
Janet writes contemporary romantic adventures mostly set in outback Australia and can be found at www.janetgover.com
The Heights, a reimagining of Wuthering Heights, is available from HQ Digital and The Other Wife, a reimagining of Jane Eyre, was published by HQ Digital in November 2018.
Agent: Julia Silk
Ella grew up between London and Los Angeles and worked in social media at Sony Music before starting the popular clothing brand London Loves LA with her sister. She was shortlisted for the Virago/The Pool New Crime Writer award in summer 2017 and the 2018 Harper’s Bazaar short story competition. Her debut novel, THE COMEBACK, will be published by Berkley in the US and is currently out on submission in other territories.
Agent: Julia Silk
Owen Booth is a journalist and copywriter and father of two sons. He lives in Walthamstow, London. He won the 2015 White Review Short Story Prize and was recently awarded 3rd prize in the Moth Short Story competition. His work has been published in numerous print and online magazines and anthologies.
His first book, What We’re Teaching Our Sons, a series of ‘life lessons’ exploring the joy and absurdity of raising boys, was published in October 2018 by Fourth Estate; a novel will follow in 2019.
Agent: Julia Silk
Edward Brooke-Hitching is a writer for QI and the author of the non-fiction bestsellers Fox Tossing, Octopus Wrestling and Other Forgotten Sports, The Phantom Atlas: The Greatest Myths, Lies and Blunders on Maps and The Golden Atlas: The Greatest Explorations, Quests and Discoveries on Maps, all published by Simon & Schuster. His next book, The Sky Atlas, is out in autumn 2019. Edward is an elected Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and lives in a dusty heap of old maps and books in London.
Agent: Charlie Campbell
Theodore Brun studied Dark Age archaeology at Cambridge, where he graduated with a BA in Archaeology and Anthropology and an MPhil in History. He also rowed in the Boat Race for the university. Professionally, Theodore qualified and worked as an arbitration lawyer, in London, Moscow, Paris and finally Hong Kong. In 2010, he quit his job in Hong Kong and cycled 10,000 miles across the whole of Asia and Europe (crossing 20 countries) to his home in Norfolk. Theodore is a third generation Viking immigrant – his Danish grandfather having settled in England in 1932. He is married and divides his time between London and Norfolk. He is the author of two novels, A Mighty Dawn and A Sacred Storm, both published by Corvus.
Agent: Charlie Campbell
Agent: Charlie Campbell
Jen Campbell
Jen Campbell is a best-selling author and award-winning poet. Her debut short story collection The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night is published by Two Roads and her children’s picture books Franklin’s Flying Bookshop and Franklin and Luna Go to the Moon, illustrated by Katie Harnett, are published by Thames & Hudson. She is also the author of the best-selling Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops series and The Bookshop Book. Her poetry collection The Hungry Ghost Festival is published by The Rialto and The Girl Aquarium received an Eric Gregory Award and will be published by Bloodaxe Books in 2019. She talks about books at www.youtube.com/jenvcampbell
Agent: Charlie Campbell
Agent: Charlie Campbell
The second Scoundrels book in the trilogy, The Hunt For Hansclapp was released in September 2018.
Ex-Royal Marine Duncan is an award-winning moving image producer and director, who’s created videos for some of the world’s biggest brands.
James Peak is a radio and podcast producer and writer who works with Michael Palin and John Cleese as well as presenting comedy features on BBC Radio 4.
Duncan and James plan to continue to write further volumes of Scoundrels until the inevitable drunken bust-up at a literary festival which will settle into a vicious lifelong feud that bankrupts them both.
Agent: Charlie Campbell
Iain grew up in the north of Scotland. He graduated from the University of St Andrews in 2001, where he read English and was part of the university’s inaugural creative writing programme – taught by Douglas Dunn, John Burnside and Kathleen Jamie.
Liz Fraser is one of the UK’s best-known writers and broadcasters on all aspects of family life, a social commentator, columnist, comedy writer and performer. She appears frequently on national TV and radio, from ITV1′s This Morning and Good Morning Britain to Sky News, BBC Breakfast, LBC radio, BBC 5Live, Channel 5 News. She has also written for the Sunday Times, the Guardian, Red, Grazia, Glamour, Marie Claire, Woman, the Daily Mail, Mother and Baby, Junior, and Woman, among many others. She also gives talks, hosts events and fronts campaigns for almost anyone who pays her and seems friendly, and doesn’t mind that her bag is full of granola crumbs.
Her internationally best-selling books about the realities of being a parent broke the mould by finding the humour in parenting and accepting that we all get most of it wrong.
Liz has a degree in Experimental Psychology and Neuroscience from Cambridge University, and is the Director of Headcase, a multi-media platform that aims to demystify the mental health issues faced by millions of normal people every day.
Twenty years after her first child was born, Liz had her fourth baby, and wrote popular parenting column ‘Three Teens and a Baby’ for the Telegraph, lifting the lid on life balancing college and colic. She currently lives in Venice with her partner and toddler and is working on her first novel.
Agent: Julia Silk
Rebecca Front
Rebecca Front is a BAFTA-winning actress and writer. She is best known for her work in such series as The Thick of It (in which she played Nicola Murray MP), The Day Today, Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge, Nighty Night, Lewis and Psychobitches. She has also written extensively. Her columns have often appeared in the Guardian, Independent and many other publications; and she and her brother Jeremy write and star in BBC Radio 4’s Incredible Women. Born in East London, she read English at St. Hugh’s College, Oxford, and was the first female president of the Oxford Revue. Her first book, Curious, was shortlisted for Non-Fiction Book of the Year at the National Book Awards. Her second, Impossible Things Before Breakfast, was published in May 2018 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Agent: Charlie Campbell
Agent: Charlie Campbell
His series of children’s books featuring Rabbit and Bear are illustrated by Jim Field and have been published in 25 languages. They have been shortlisted for both the Sainsbury’s and Irish Book of the Year awards. His latest novel, Connect, was published in 2018 by Picador and Nan Talese.
Agent: Charlie Campbell
Janet Gover grew up in a small Queensland country town, surrounded by books. After studying at Queensland University she became a television journalist, first in Australia, then in Asia and Europe. During her career Janet has met one Pope, a few movie stars and is on first name terms with a dolphin. She now works with television technology and travels extensively with her job. While living in Hong Kong, she met an Englishman, whom she subsequently married. She now lives in West London.
Her first fiction was published in 2002 – a short story inspired by a holiday in Wales, and she has now written 10 published novels. Her work has been translated into six languages. In 2017 Little Girl Lost won the Epic Romantic Novel of the Year award, presented by the Romantic Novelists Association (UK).
If asked, she would say her stories mostly revolve around woman discovering the strength to take control of their lives. And if there’s a bit of romance along the way, so much the better.
Agent: Julia Silk
Rohan Gunatillake’s first book This is Happening was published by Pan Macmillan’s new Bluebird imprint in 2016 in the UK and by St Martin’s Press in 2017 in the US. He is a leading entrepreneur in the growing area of wise technology and modern mindfulness. Rohan heads up 21awake, a creative studio which combines deep experience in meditation, technology & design. 21awake is best known for buddhify, the urban mindfulness app which so far has been the #1 Health & Fitness app in 34 countries. Rohan also has a background in digital innovation in the arts, has worked with several leading arts organisations across the UK including two years as the innovation lead for the Edinburgh Festivals. Based in Glasgow, Rohan is an in-demand speaker on modern meditation both in the UK and internationally with recent appearances at SXSW, FutureFest, Wisdom 2.0, Future Everything and the Buddhist Geeks Conference. Rohan has written for Wired UK and the Guardian online and has made guest appearances on BBC Radio 4, the Guardian Tech Weekly podcast and CBC. He is a trustee of the British Council and in 2012 Wired magazine named him in their Smart List of 50 people who are about to change the world.
His Mindfulness Cards have just been published by Chronicle Books.
Agent: Julia Kingsford
Sofie Hagen is a comedian, writer, podcaster and fat activist. Her first book, Happy Fat, is published by 4th Estate. She hosts the podcasts Made of Human and Secret Dinosaur Cult. She was born and raised in Denmark, and now lives in London.
Agent: Charlotte Atyeo
Ed Hawkins is an award-winning author and investigative journalist. He has written five books and his work has appeared in, among many others, The Times, Guardian and Daily Mail.
His most recent book, The Men on Magic Carpets: Searching for the Superhuman Sports Star (Bloomsbury) is the bizarre story of how a group of US west coast hippies believed they could create a real-life comic-book superhero with extraordinary powers through meditation and yoga, and how they helped end the Cold War.
Renowned for deep-dive investigations, Hawkins worked undercover in the illegal, mafia-run Indian gambling industry for Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy (Bloomsbury, 2013), which exposed match-fixing in cricket. It won Wisden Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year.
The Lost Boys (Bloomsbury, 2015) was a critcally acclaimed piece of investigative journalism. Posing as a football agent in Cyprus and Africa, Hawkins infiltrated people traffickers to highlight the slave trade in the sport, bringing down the charity which was supposed to be preventing it and highlighting corruption in Fifa.
His first book, Sporting Chancer (Pitch, 2012) was nominated for Best New Writer at the 2012 British Sports Book Awards. He also was Michael Holding’s ghostwriter for No Holding Back (Orion, 2011). He has won three Sports Journalist Association Awards.
Agent: Charlotte Atyeo
David Higgins is responsible for some of the world’s most famous bodies. As a personal trainer his client list is second to none. Over the last few years he has worked on a number of blockbusters, including Wonder Woman, Justice League, Avengers: Age of Ultron and The Legend of Tarzan. Previously he played professional Aussie Rules football while studying Sports Science at university. After a serious collision ended his sporting career, he put the knowledge gained from his studies and his own rehabilitation to develop his own workout, which became known as Dynamic Pilates.
In 2007, he founded a boutique chain of gyms, with seven sites in London and franchises abroad, before leaving in 2013. He also contributed columns to the Evening Standard and Mail on Sunday. He has recently opened a new training programme at the Corinthia Hotel in London, the David Higgins ‘Dynamix’ Method.
His first book, The Hollywood Body Plan, will make his training methods available to everyone and is published by Headline.
Agent: Charlie Campbell
Maisie Hill is a highly qualified and sought-after expert in women’s health. She has a BSc in Chinese medicine acupuncture and is a member of the British Acupuncture Council. She also has over a decade of experience as a women’s health practitioner and birth doula, in addition to holding diplomas in reflexology, aromatherapy, paediatric acupuncture, and the Arvigo techniques of Mayan abdominal therapy. Maisie also has a strong interest in functional nutrition, having apprenticed with Nicole Jardim, and is currently training with the Integrative Women’s Health Institute as a health coach.
When she’s not writing or treating clients she loves going to yoga classes and chasing her toddler around the beaches of Margate. She makes a cracking gin and tonic, with lime not lemon.
Maisie’s first book, Period Power: How to Harness Your Hormones and Make Your Cycle Work for You, will be published by Bloomsbury’s Green Tree imprint in May 2019.
Agent: Julia Silk
Will Hill
Will Hill is the author of After the Fire (Usborne), which won the YA Book Prize and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, and the bestselling Department 19 series (HarperCollins). He has written for film and television and has contributed stories to award-winning anthologies and collections. He lives in East London.
Agent: Charlie Campbell
Nicholas Hogg was born in Leicester. After graduating with a psychology degree he travelled widely, living in the USA, New Zealand, and Japan. In Tokyo he worked as an English teacher and an actor, appearing in television shows, adverts, and in a hit computer game as a zombie. As press officer for a Japanese NGO ship he sailed the around the world three times, reporting on global development issues. He has also worked as a counsellor, in road construction, and as a cycle courier. Currently he divides his time between writing, running a fashion brand, and developing a quiz show for a production company.
His debut novel, Show Me the Sky, was nominated for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and his short stories have won numerous prizes and been broadcast by the BBC. With Tokyo, his acclaimed third novel, Nicholas was awarded an Art Omi fellowship in New York.
Agent: Charlie Campbell
Aimee is from Lincoln, where she enjoys drinking gin and spending time with her family (and she won’t tell you which of those she prefers doing). As a child, one of her favourite parts of the summer holidays was to devour all the books in a little book shop in Devon. She continued reading at lightning speed right up until having children. She now reads with eyes propped open by match sticks. She is currently working on her first novel.
Agent: Julia Silk
His latest book, Empire of Fear: Inside the Islamic State, is published by Oneworld.
Agent: Charlie Campbell
Rosie Howard wrote her first book when she was five. It failed to find a publisher and many years passed before she had another go. As an adult, she spent many years in public relations, campaigning, political lobbying and freelance journalism, until she realized she preferred making things up. Rosie takes an anthropological interest in family, friends and the community in her West Sussex village, where she lives in a cottage with roses around the door, along with her artist husband, their children and other pets.
The Homecoming and a Vintage Year, the first two novels in the Havenbury series, are published by Allison & Busby. Rosie also writes as Poppy Alexander: 25 Days ’Til Christmas was published by Orion in 2018; it has been optioned for TV with rights so far sold in the US, Germany, Norway and Sweden for publication in 2019.
Agent: Julia Silk
Tom is a Welsh illustrator living in Bristol with his wife Candy. With a passion for food illustration he began working on the newly commissioned Great British Bake Off back in 2010, little knowing that it and his illustrations would become watched and loved by millions. He has drawn more than 1500 bakes for the show and its spin offs as well as commissions for Channel 4, The Glastonbury Festival and Visit England. His first book The Great British Bake Off Colouring Book was published by Hodder in September 2016.
Agent: Julia Kingsford
Simon Jones is a former professional cricketer who played for England, Glamorgan, Hampshire and Worcestershire. In 2005 he tore through the Australian batting order, swinging the ball at pace, and inspiring some of England’s greatest ever victories as they regained the Ashes for the first time in almost twenty years. Written in collaboration with Jon Hotten, The Test takes you inside the dressing room and shows the rigours and intensity of top-level sport like never before. Winner of the Wisden Book of the Year in 2015.
‘What a player, what a man. Simon was the unsung hero in the 2005 Ashes. His crucial wickets and aggression took us over the winning line.’ Kevin Pietersen
‘Simon Jones only played 18 Test matches, but to me and most England fans he will always be a legend. His bowling during the 2005 series, against the best Australian team in history, was simply magnificent; fast, furious, swinging both ways like a deranged boomerang, and devastatingly successful. A class act.’ Piers Morgan
‘I can’t think of an England player that every supporter and player would have loved to see more with the 3 lions on his chest than Jonesy. He was right up there with the best that I was fortunate to captain.’ Michael Vaughan
Jon Hotten is the author of Muscle: A Writer’s Trip Through a Sport with No Boundaries and The Years of the Locust: A True Story of Murder, Money and Mayhem in the Last Age of Boxing (both Yellow Jersey Press), as well as the popular Old Batsman Blog, which has established him as one of the finest cricket writers around.
Agent: Charlie Campbell
Katey is the author of three commercial women’s fiction novels published by HarperCollins imprint HarperImpulse. Her heartwarming novels are about people overcoming everyday challenges with the support of their friends, family and local community. She has also written a series of coffee-break romances and two novellas, and her next novel, about a young woman (literally) rebuilding her life after the death of her husband, Make Do and Mend a Broken Heart, will be published by Quercus in 2020.
Originally from South Wales, Katey now lives in Yorkshire with her husband and son. When she’s not writing she’ll most likely be found indulging her love of musicals, enjoying live music or reading anything and everything she can lay her hands on.
Agent: Julia Silk
Bella Mackie is a freelance journalist. She previously worked as an editor at the Guardian and VICE news. Her first book, Jog On, is published by William Collins and is a Sunday Times Bestseller.
Agent: Charlie Campbell
Amanda Mason was born and brought up in Whitby, North Yorkshire. She studied Theatre at Dartington College of Arts, where she began writing by devising and directing plays. After a few years of earning a very irregular living in lots of odd jobs, including performing in a comedy street magic act, she became a teacher and has worked in the UK, Italy, Spain, and Germany. She now lives in York and has given up teaching for writing. Her short stories have been published by Parthian, Unthank Books, and The Fiction Desk.
Her first novel, The Wayward Girls, a dual-timeline ghost story set in the 1970s and present day, will be published by Bonnier Zaffre in 2019, with a second to follow in 2020.
Agent: Julia Silk
Hugh Matheson was a British oarsman representing his country at the Olympics in 1972, 1976 and 1980. He has remained closely in touch with the sport as a journalist and commentator ever since.
Chris Dodd was The Guardian’s rowing correspondent from 1970. He was editor of Regatta magazine and wrote The Story of World Rowing (Hutchinson) and Pieces of Eight, covering Matheson’s own Olympic adventures.
Agent: Charlie Campbell
Alison May was born and raised in North Yorkshire, but now lives in Worcester with one husband, no kids and no pets. There were goldfish once. That ended badly. She studied History and Creative Writing and worked as a waitress, a shop assistant, a learning adviser, an advice centre manager and a freelance trainer, before settling on ‘making up stories’ as an entirely acceptable grown-up career plan; she is also an experienced creative writing tutor. In 2012 Alison won the RNA’s Elizabeth Goudge Trophy, and her novella Cora’s Christmas Kiss was shortlisted for a Love Stories award in 2015 and a Romantic Novelists’ Association RoNA Rose in 2016. She is also one half of Juliet Bell.
Her latest novel, All That Was Lost, is a stylishly written story of grief, love, loss and the narratives we construct for our own lives, which will appeal to fans of Maeve Binchy and Dorothy Koomson, published in September 2018 from Legend Press.
Agent: Julia Silk
Anthony McGowan has written two literary thrillers, Stag Hunt and Mortal Coil, and numerous young adult novels, including Hellbent, Henry Tumour, The Knife That Killed Me (made into an acclaimed film in 2014), The Fall, Brock, Hello Darkness, Pike and Rook, which was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. He has also written widely for younger children, including the award-winning Donut Diaries series, and Einstein’s Underpants, which was shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize. His The Art of Failing was described by Nick Hornby as ‘…if young Nicholson Baker had decided to write as Charles Pooter. It’s eccentric, charming, maddening, and very, very funny. It also comes much closer to describing the reality of the writing life than anything you’ll find in the Paris Review.’
Agent: Charlie Campbell
Agent: Charlie Campbell
Moin Mir was born in India and lives in London. His career in advertising and brand consultancy has taken him across Asia and Europe. He has published an English translation of Mirza Ghalib’s letters and has extensively researched the history of Sufism and cultural revivalism in India. He is a descendant of Meer Jafar Ali Khan.
“A fascinating story of triumph and fortitude in delightful prose from a forgotten chapter of our colonial past. Richly researched and painstakingly crafted.” Shashi Tharoor
“A moving story of a Prince who took on and defeated a monolithic tyrant.” Dominic West
Agent: Charlie Campbell
Charlotte worked for the Independent for eight years, as a columnist, editor and reporter, and was shortlisted for the Cudlipp Prize at the 2013 Press Awards for her investigative journalism. Founder of the online platform Motherland.net, she regularly contributes to the Guardian and iNews, as well as the likes of BBC World Service, Channel 4 and Woman’s Hour. She has three children and lives in London.
Her first novel, a domestic noir/espionage thriller, The Most Difficult Thing, will be published by Borough Press in July 2019, and she is currently working on a non-fiction book about her grandfather, Kim Philby.
Agent: Julia Silk
Hannah Richards is a highly-trained nutritionist with prestigious qualifications matched by only a handful of others in the UK. She is an Advanced Certified Metabolic Typing Advisor, C.H.E.K Holistic Lifestyle Coach level III and a Functional Diagnostic Nutritionist. She is a regular contributor to publications including Cosmopolitan, ES Magazine, the Daily Telegraph, Health for Men and Company magazine as well as having a regular slot on the Chrissy B Show on Sky TV.
Her book, The Best Possible You, is published in the UK by Orion Spring in July 2018.
Agent: Julia Kingsford
Rebecca Schiller is a journalist, author, campaigner, media spokesperson and doula, who advocates for women’s rights in pregnancy and childbirth.
She is chief executive of the human rights in childbirth charity Birthrights, and a regular contributor to, among others, the Guardian, The Pool, Broadly and Motherland, commenting on birth-related issues. Her work is endorsed by policy makers and high-profile mothers such as Kirstie Allsopp and Christy Turlington.
Why Human Rights in Childbirth Matter was published in September 2016 by Pinter & Martin, and Rebecca’s definitive guide to pregnancy and childbirth, Your No-Guilt Pregnancy Plan: A Revolutionary Guide to Pregnancy, Birth and the Weeks That Follow, is published by Penguin Life.
Agent: Julia Silk
Nikesh Shukla is the author of the novels Coconut Unlimited (Quartet) which was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, Meatspace (Friday Project), which saw him reach notoriety as a the first man to send a lamb chop into space, a feat that has been viewed on Youtube more than 250,000 times and most recently The One Who Wrote Destiny, published in April 2018 by Atlantic Books. His first YA novel Run, Riot was published by Hachette Children’s Books in June 2018 and was shortlisted in the young adult category for the Specsavers National Book Awards 2018.
He is also the editor of the acclaimed collection of essays about race and immigration by 21 writers of colour, The Good Immigrant (Unbound), which was Radio 4 Book of the Week and for which he was shortlisted for the Liberty Human Rights Arts Award, named one of Foreign Policy Magazine’s 100 Global Thinkers of 2016 and which won the Books Are My Bags Readers Choice Award. The Good Immigrant USA a collection by 26 writers who are first or second generation immigrants to the US is published by Dialogue Books (UK) and Little, Brown (US).
Together with Julia he has co-founded The Good Journal and The Good Literary Agency.
Agent: Julia Kingsford
Agent: Charlotte Atyeo
He lives in Walthamstow, East London, with his partner and an elderly cat called Soze.
His first novel, The Esquimaux, is published by Silvertail.
Agent: Charlie Campbell
The Authors were an Edwardian cricket team, which starred PG Wodehouse, Arthur Conan Doyle and AA Milne. Each year, they’d play sides of Actors and Publishers at Lord’s. The last of these matches was in 1912. There were a few subsequent incarnations of the team before they were revived in 2012 by literary agent Charlie Campbell and novelist Nicholas Hogg. In their comeback season, they played all over England, including matches at Lord’s and at Wormsley against the Lords and Commons CC. In January 2013, they toured India, playing a Rajasthan Royals XI and making the front page of The Times of India. They have played three national teams, Japan, Iceland and the Vatican, winning the first and losing to the Puffins and St Peter’s CC. The Authors XI: A Season of English Cricket from Hackney to Hambledon is published by Bloomsbury and was shortlisted for the MCC Cricket Society Book of the Year Award.
Agent: Charlie Campbell
Agent: Charlotte Atyeo
The Gypsy Code is a true story of secret identity, revenge and forbidden love and is published by Michael Joseph in April 2019.
Agent: Charlie Campbell