AUTHORS: N-Z
Andie Newton
Andie Newton is a USA Today bestselling author of historical fiction. Her titles include A Child for the Reich, The Girls from the Beach, The Girl from Vichy and The Girl I Left Behind. She lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her family. When she’s not writing gritty war stories about women, you can usually find her trail running in the desert and stopping to pet every Yellow Lab or Golden Retriever that crosses her path. Andie is actively involved with the reading and writing community on social media. You can follow her on Twitter, Instagram or check out her author page on Facebook for all the latest updates.
Xueting C. Ni
Xueting C. Ni is an award-winning author, literary translator, cultural commentator and SFF curator. She has written and spoken about China’s traditional and contemporary cultures for over a decade, with the aim of furthering understanding between China and the Anglophone world.
With a special interest in pop culture, she continues to introduce new, interesting and relevant literature and genres from China’s dynamic repertoire to Western readers, as well as writing perceptive works on China’s development as a culture.
In 2022, she won the British Fantasy Award for Best Anthology for her Chinese sci-fi curation, Sinopticon: A Celebration of Chinese Science Fiction. Her current project explores the phenomenon of Chinese martial arts literature and its sweeping influence across film, TV, games and web novels.
Ruth O'Leary
Ruth lives beside the sea in Dublin, Ireland with her family and golden retriever Rusky. Her short stories have been published in national magazines and in online publications. Her debut novel The Weekend Break will be published in Spring 2024 by Poolbeg.
After over twenty years in the travel business Ruth now works freelance as a movie extra playing many different parts from nun to Viking! She also has a monthly blog called Rambling Ruth, combining her two passions, travel and writing.
Tony O'Reilly
Tony O’Reilly runs a small graphic design company. He lives and works in the seaside town of Dalkey, Co. Dublin. His hobbies include swimming, eating and people watching, which makes him a bit of a goldfish if you think about it.
In 2022 he came 2nd overall in the Yeovil Short Story awards. He was shortlisted for the William Trevor Short Story Competition and the George Bermingham short story competition. One of his first short stories won the Emerging Writer competition in The Sunday Tribune Hennessy Literary Awards. His first book, Sentinel, came first in the Discovered Authors competition for the Republic of Ireland and 2nd overall in the UK and Ireland.
His latest novel, Death in the Liberties, was published in June 2023.
Bella Osborne
Bella Osborne’s stories are about friendship, love and coping with what life throws at you. She has written nine romantic comedies and in 2022 her rom com The Promise of Summer won the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s Jane-Wenham Jones Award for Romantic Comedy Novel of the Year. Her tenth novel, and second bookclub title, The Girls, came out in April 2022.
Bella lives in The Midlands, UK with her husband, daughter and a cat who thinks she’s a dog. When not writing Bella is usually eating custard creams and planning holidays.
Evan Ostryzniuk
Evan Ostryzniuk is the author of a historical fiction series, featuring wannabe knight Geoffrey Hotspur, published by Endeavour Media.
Evan grew up in Canada and attended Cambridge University, where he earned a PhD in History. He currently works for the BBC. Evan is working on a new series of historical detective novels set during the early years of the Spanish Inquisition, following special papal investigator Serafino Tucci di Salerno.
Samantha Pennington
Originally from Northamptonshire, Samantha now lives in North Essex with her family. An aspiring author from a young age, she only recently stopped procrastinating and is writing in earnest her debut novel, a romcom. When not reading or writing, she can be found making excuses not to run, sipping gin with the girls and planning city breaks.
Jake Pierce
Jake Pierce is a writer currently residing in Salt Lake City, Utah. Jake graduated Magna Cum Laude from Hampden-Sydney College with a degree in Economics. He began his writing journey in 2012, penning several short stories. His first short story, The Woman in the Yellow Dress, was published in his alma mater’s magazine, The Garnet. Writing in the mornings, evenings, and on weekends, Jake has continued to produce short stories and novels while advancing a career in Real Estate and Finance. Jake aspires to destigmatize the struggles around emotional well-being and is an advocate of mental health awareness.
James Richards
James Richards is a winner of the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair 2022 competition. He enjoyed a stint as an actor and librettist, writing comic opera Gutter Press which has been staged in several London venues. With an MA in Professional Writing from London Metropolitan University, he now works as a freelance journalist.
Nothing makes him happier than wandering around windswept places and swimming in the sea, except perhaps freshly ground coffee and Choco Leibniz biscuits.
Fulton Ross
Fulton Ross is a writer and journalist from the Scottish Highlands. A former shinty player and graduate in Scottish literature and history from Glasgow University, he worked as a sub-editor and occasional columnist on national newspapers for more than decade. Inspired by Gaelic folktales, his debut novel, The Unforgiven Dead, was shortlisted for the Scottish Crime Debut of the Year at Bloody Scotland.
Fulton now lives in a 300-year-old haunted house in Northern Ireland with his wife and three children.
M.D. Rushbrooke
Before devoting his free time to writing, M.D. Rushbrooke was a psychologist dealing with the complexities of human behaviour. He later worked for a leading management consultancy and then served as the Chief Strategy Officer for a large, publicly-listed company. While he’s authored dozens of business articles, No Rest for the Wiccan is his first fiction novel.
He lived in England for close to a decade, but now resides in Australia. He enjoys writing stories steeped in history and psychological horror – the types of stories that terrified him growing up.
Francesco Sarti
Francesco Sarti is a writer of dark stories with a speculative twist. Originally from Italy, Francesco lived in Brazil and Ireland before moving to the South of England in 2017. Having worked as a professional basketball player, he now works as a Design Engineer for renewable energy systems and he’s always on the lookout for a good literary festival.
Alex Shaw
Alex Shaw is a member of the International Thriller Writers organisation and the Crime Writers Association. His bestselling Aidan Snow SAS thrillers Cold Blood, Cold Black and Cold East are published by HarperCollins UK (HQ Digital) in English and Luzifer Verlag in German. His latest novel Total Control came out July 2022. Alex has also written numerous short stories and novellas.
Alex and his family are currently expats dividing their time between homes in Ukraine, England and Qatar.
Jo Simmonds
Jo Simmonds grew up by the seaside but now lives in Bristol. She studied English Literature and worked in marketing and communications for ten years before returning to Bath Spa for her MA in Writing for Young People.
Jo writes joyful LGBQT+ YA, bad poetry and text messages with too many emojis.
Jen Smith
Jen lives in the Midlands with her husband and kids, where she dreams of living by the sea in the south of France. She is an audiobook narrator with an MA in Medieval History and loves castles and King John. When not writing or narrating, Jen can be found planning the next family holiday, being taxi to the kids and giggling through her kickboxing lessons. Jen is currently working on her debut contemporary romance novel.
Maggie Sullivan
Manchester-born global bestselling author Maggie Sullivan writes Coronation Street prequels following the early lives of the much-loved Corrie characters, as well as sagas set in Lancashire during the Second World War.
Maggie also writes non fiction, romantic fiction, historical fiction and heartwarming short stories. She loves to travel and is an avid reader, never going without her Kindle. She is a long standing member of Romantic Novelists’ Association. After living abroad for several years, she settled in London where she still lives.
Joanne Surridge
Jo Surridge writes dark, crime based stories. She is fascinated by the secrets and lies hidden in the past that still have the power to ruin lives even decades later. She loves female led stories, especially enjoying writing about characters who learn to upend what society expects from them.
Jo is a carer for her mum, living in Walthamstow, East
London where she has lived all her life. She loves visiting art galleries and museums, especially if there is a lunch involved, and reads anything that takes her fancy.
She has worked as a civil servant, in local government and in charities. Her first job was in her local library as a Saturday Assistant and she has recently taken on a voluntary role back at that same library to choose and deliver books to people who are unable to get out and visit the library to choose their own books.
Sally Tarpey
Sally is from Hampshire and now lives in Essex with her family. After retiring from teaching, she worked in Cambodia as an education adviser and rekindled her passion for writing. Addicted to travel and books, when she is not at her laptop or planning the next trip, she can be found striding out in the countryside or battling the weeds on her allotment. Sally has written numerous poems and short stories. Her debut novel, The Country Girl, came out in April 2023.
Stewart Tolley
Stewart brings quirky, unusual and amusing narratives from the past to a twenty-first century audience. He holds a PhD in eighteenth century political history.
Stewart has worked as a tutor at the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education and taught at UCL. Recently he has joined Oxford Brookes. He now works to support and encourage students to study at the University from under-represented social and economic groups. He also runs workshops with an experienced journalist to help academics learn how to write for a popular audience and has written for the magazine History Today.
Stewart is a keen quizzer and board gamer. He has a collection of eighteenth century satirical prints which never fail to amuse!
Rhiannon Jenkins Tsang
Rhiannon was born and grew up in Yorkshire, read Oriental Studies (Chinese) at Oxford, and is a non-practising lawyer. Her work focuses on historical and cultural fault lines, and contains strong international themes.
The Last Vicereine was published by Penguin Random House in 2017 and she is the 2018 winner of the Nottingham Writers’ Studio Writer of the Year award.
Helen Watts
Helen Watts writes historical fiction for children. Her debut novel One Day in Oradour (Bloomsbury, 2014) was nominated for the 2014 CILIP Carnegie Medal for an Outstanding Book for Children.
Helen regularly runs creative writing workshops in schools and libraries. When she is not working, she loves walking in the Vale of Evesham, where she now lives.
Kerry Watts
Kerry Watts is the author of crime thrillers which often have mental health issues at the heart of the story. This comes from her experience of working with people with mental health problems in acute and community settings. When she’s not writing she devours true crime books and TV shows which has given her an unsettling amount of knowledge on serial killers and their lives.
She is the author of the Detective Jessie Blake series, set in Perthshire, published by Bookouture.
@kezzawattsbooks
Simon Whaley
Simon Whaley is a writer, author and photographer. He is the bestselling author of One Hundred Ways For A Dog To Train Its Human. Foraging for Murder, a cosy mystery, is out now.
In addition to writing several books, Simon regularly has articles and short stories printed in various publications.
D.E. White
Kathryn Whitfield
Kathryn loved reading from the moment she got a library card and soon began to fill notebooks with stories of her own. A career in Audiology took over, until she began scribbling down words during newborn naps on her maternity leave. She lives in Staffordshire with her husband and two young children. Her debut novel, The Family at Number 11, came out in June.
Ally Wiegand
Ally Wiegand currently resides in Texas. She loves her family, fall, and writing love stories that make your heart squeeze. Ally has dreamed of being a writer since she was a girl. She is a coffee addict, a classic car lover, and a cat mom to two furballs. Her dream is to write stories that make readers happy, make them sad – but, most importantly, feel something.
Emma-Claire Wilson
Born in Scotland, Emma travelled the world as the child of military parents. Finally she settled in Southern Spain with her husband, daughters, and rescue dog, Pip. Emma works as a journalist for English language magazines and newspapers in Spain and in 2015 launched The Glass House Online Magazine. When not writing emotional book club fiction, you can find her by the sea dreaming up new stories, or wrapped in a blanket with a book in her hand.
Janet Woods
Janet Woods was a popular author of historical women’s fiction. Born and raised in Dorset, she emigrated to Western Australia. Janet was the author of Daughter of Darkness, which won the mainstream section of Romantic Novel of the Year in Australia in 2002.
Janet was a life member of The Society of Women Writers, Western Australia and was nominated for the ‘Alice’, an award in recognition of outstanding achievement. She was published by Robert Hale, Simon & Schuster, and Severn House.
Mark Woolhouse
Mark Woolhouse OBE is a Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh, a post he has held for over twenty years. Well-known and respected in his field, he has received numerous awards and has been introduced on the Today Programme as “one of Britain’s most senior scientists”. Since January 2020 he has been heavily involved with the UK’s response to COVID-19. He is a member of two high-level government advisory bodies: SPI-M for the UK (a subcommittee of SAGE) and the C19 Advisory Group for the Scottish Government. His scientific memoir, The Year The World Went Mad, was published in February 2022.
Jessica Yale
Jessica is currently working on her first romance novel. She grew up in the Midlands and began writing to remind her of home while working in the United States. When Jessica’s not writing, she can usually be found trying to tempt her lurchers off her yoga mat or watching football with her husband.