Joanna Cannon’s first two novels, The Trouble with Goats and Sheep and Three Things about Elsie, were both Sunday Times bestsellers and Richard and Judy picks. She worked as a hospital doctor before specialising in psychiatry, and lives in the Peak District with her family and her dog.
SUSAN ALLOTT finished her first novel, THE SILENCE, after completing the Faber Academy course. It was widely acclaimed and longlisted for the New Blood Dagger. THE HOUSE ON RYE LANE is her second novel. She lives in south London with her two children and her husband.
Susie Steiner began her writing career as a news reporter first on local papers, then on the Evening Standard, the Daily Telegraph and The Times. In 2001 she joined the Guardian, where she worked as a commissioning editor for 11 years. Her first novel, Homecoming was described as ‘truly exceptional’ by the Observer.
Bella Mackie’s debut novel How to Kill Your Family was a #1 Sunday Times bestseller and spent 47 weeks in the top 10 in paperback. She is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling nonfiction Jog On, and has written for the Guardian, Vogue and Vice. In 2023 she judged the Women’s Prize for Fiction and her work has been shortlisted for the British Book Awards.
Jennifer Ryan is originally from Kent and now lives in the Washington, DC area with her husband and two children. She was previously a nonfiction book editor.
Bridget Collins trained as an actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art after reading English at King’s College, Cambridge. She is the author of seven acclaimed books for young adults and has had two plays produced, one at the Edinburgh Fringe. She is the No. 1 bestselling author of THE BINDING and THE BETRAYALS. THE SILENCE FACTORY is her third adult novel.
Janice Pariat is the award-winning author of Boats on Land: A Collection of Short Stories, Seahorse: A Novel, and the international bestseller The Nine-Chambered Heart. She lives in India.
Neal Stephenson is the author of Termination Shock, Seveneves, Reamde, Anathem; the three-volume historical epic the Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World); Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age, Zodiac and the iconic Snow Crash, named one of Time magazine’s top one hundred all-time best English-language novels. He lives in Seattle, Washington.
Val McDermid is a No.1 bestseller whose novels have been translated into more than thirty languages, and have sold more than sixteen million copies. She has won many awards internationally, including the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year. She was inducted into the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame in 2009, was the recipient of the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger in 2010. Val writes full time and lives in Edinburgh and the East Neuk of Fife.
