Guest Authors
Sophie Hannah
Deborah Moggach
Deborah is a wide-ranging author who has been writing since the 1970s, but rarely writes a similar book twice. Best known as the author of funny and moving 'Best Exotic Marigold Hotel', she has also written historical novels, such as 'Tulip Fever', books of short stories and screenplays. Her latest book, 'Final Demand', is a powerful novel about the consequences of greed.
Deborah joined us in Herefordshire in November 2018
Humphrey Hawksley
Humphrey Hawksley is a BBC foreign correspondent whose work has taken him to crises on every continent. He was expelled from Sri Lanka, opened the BBC’s television bureau in China, arrested in Serbia and initiated a global campaign against enslaved children in the chocolate industry. The campaign continues today.
Humphrey is the author of the acclaimed ‘Future History’ series 'Dragon Strike', 'Dragon Fire' and 'TheThird World War' that explores world conflict. He has published four international thrillers, 'Ceremony of Innocence', 'Absolute Measures', 'Red Spirit' and 'Security Breach', together with the non-fiction 'Democracy Kills: What’s so good about the Vote' – a tie-in to his TV documentary on the pitfalls of the modern-day path to democracy from dictatorship.
Humphrey will be joining us in Suffolk in February 2019
Bryony Doran’s first novel, ‘The China Bird’, won the Hookline novel competition in 2008 and was published in 2009, and followed in 2013 by her short story collection, ‘The Sand Eggs’. She has written and performed poetry for many years and completed an MA in Writing at Sheffield Hallam University. Her first collection, ‘Bulletproof’, is included in ‘Home Front’ ( collections of book length sequences by female poets living in a state of separation from husbands or sons serving in a war zone). She is currently working on her second novel. Born in a youth hostel on Dartmoor, she grew up in Cornwall and studied fashion at Manchester before moving to Yorkshire. She lives in Sheffield with her partner Bill Allerton, who is also a writer.
Bryony joined us in Herefordshire in November 2018
Chris Curran
Chris Curran has lived in St Leonards on Sea for twenty years. Her psychological thrillers are published by Harper Collins Killer Reads. All
have been Amazon bestsellers. She also writes short stories one of which was recently shortlisted for the Crime Writers Association Margery Allingham award.
Her third and latest novel 'Her Deadly Secret' is a dark and twisty psychological thriller, in which a young girl is abducted and her family is confronted with a horror from deep in their past.
Chris will be joining us in East Sussex in January 2019
Tom Harper
Tom Harper is the author of fourteen thriller and adventure novels, including the Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller "The Tiger's Prey" co-written with Wilbur Smith. Other novels include "Black River", "Zodiac Station", and "The Orpheus Descent".
His novels have been translated into over twenty languages worldwide. He is a former Chair of the Crime Writers' Association and the Harrogate History Festival, and a director of the Historical Writers' Association.
Tom joined us in East Yorkshire in September 2018
George Mann
George Mann is a Sunday Times bestselling novelist and scriptwriter.
He’s the author of the Newbury & Hobbes Victorian mystery series, as well as four novels about a 1920s vigilante known as The Ghost. He’s also written bestselling Doctor Who novels, new adventures for Sherlock Holmes and the supernatural crime series, Wychwood.
His comic writing includes extensive work on Doctor Who, Dark Souls (based on the massively popular video games), Warhammer 40,000 and a creator-owned series based on Newbury & Hobbes, as well Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for younger readers.
He’s written audio scripts for Doctor Who, Blake’s 7, Sherlock Holmes, Warhammer 40,000 and more, and for a handful of high-profile iOS games.
As Editor he’s assembled four anthologies of original Sherlock Holmes fiction, as well as multiple volumes of The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction and The Solaris Book of New Fantasy.
George joined us in Lincolnshire in June and in East Yorkshire in September 2018
Guinevere Glasfurd
Last year she was awarded a Fellowship at MacDowell Colony (an artists' colony in New Hampshire), and has just returned from from a 6 week stay where she was working on her second book. Guin joined us in Suffolk in November 2017.
Guin will be joining us again in Suffolk in February 2019
Chris Ewan
Chris Ewan is the critically acclaimed author of many crime and thriller novels, including the major bestseller 'Safe House' (shortlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award), 'Dead Line', 'Dark Tides' (an Observer "Thriller of the Month") and 'Long Time Lost'. He’s also the author of the popular 'Good Thief's Guide to...' series of mystery novels featuring globetrotting crime writer and burglar-for-hire Charlie Howard. In 2011, he was voted one of America's favourite British authors by a Huffington Post poll and in 2017 he was longlisted for the CWA Dagger in the Library. After many years living on the Isle of Man, Chris recently returned home to Somerset where he lives with his wife and two children.
Chris is joined us for our weekend Retreat in Somerset in April 2018.
Giselle Green
Giselle is a contemporary, women’s fiction author, who enjoys creating emotionally-gripping story-lines about family and relationships.
After her debut novel Pandora's Box won the Romantic Novelists' Association New Writer's Award in 2008, Giselle’s third novel, A Sister's Gift was a number one bestseller on Amazon's kindle chart in 2012. Her books have been translated into German, Italian, Turkish and Hungarian.
Her latest novel Dear Dad has been shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists’ Association Romantic Novel of the Year award (2017). Set in Rochester, Dear Dad is a heart-warming love story that develops when a determined 9-year-old, desperate to find his father, starts sending letters to the wrong guy ...
Giselle lives in Kent with her husband and their large family and is currently working on her seventh novel. Giselle joined us at our retreat in Kent in March.
Penny Hancock
Penny is the author of the best-selling Tideline, a Richard and Judy 'Summer Read' in 2012. She has written two further novels, The Darkening Hour, (a Good Housekeeping thriller of the month) and A Trick of the Mind. As well as writing, Penny teaches creative writing, and has worked as a Royal Literary Fellow, a primary school teacher and a teacher of English as a foreign language. Penny is working on her fourth novel, due to be published by Mantle (an imprint of Pan Macmillan) in January 2019.
Penny joined us in Thorpeness in February 2018.
The best medicine in the world is a good book and a comfy chair...
