Guest Authors

Guinevere Glasfurd

Guin lives on the edge of the Fens, near Cambridge. Her first novel, ‘The Words in my Hand’, was written with the support of a grant from Arts Council England and was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel award in 2016. Her second, ‘The Year Without Summer’, tells the story of 1816, when a volcanic eruption led to climate consequences all over the globe.  It was shortlisted for the HWA Gold Crown Award in 2020.

Her latest book is published in May 2022. ‘Privilege’ is set in 18th century France and explores themes of censorship and publishing, through the entwined lives of Delphine, a French woman cast out after her father’s disgrace, and Chancery, an apprentice printer from London with a task to complete.

Alice Jolly

Alice Jolly’s 2015 memoir ‘Dead Babies And Seaside Towns’ won the Pen / Ackerley Award. One of her short stories won the 2014 V. S. Pritchett Memorial Prize, awarded by The Royal Society of Literature. She has published two novels with Simon and Schuster and four of her plays have been produced by the professional company of the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham. She teaches creative writing on the Master of Studies course at Oxford University. Her fourth novel ‘Mary Ann Sate’, was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize in 2019.

Penny Hancock

Penny is the author of the best-selling ‘Tideline’, a Richard and Judy 'Summer Read' in 2012. Her latest book, ‘I Thought I Knew You’, shows the stress when a rape allegation tears a long-held friendship apart, and won the East Anglian Novel of the Year.   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. Her fifth novel, ‘The Choice’, was published in July 2022.

George Mann

George Mann is a Sunday Times Top Ten best-selling 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 and Star Wars 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.

William Shaw

William Shaw has been longlisted three times for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and the CWA Historical Dagger and shortlisted for a Barry Award, The CWA Golden Dagger and the Golden Bullet.

Peter May has praised him as ‘a superb storyteller’, and Peter James has hailed him as ‘one of the great rising talents of UK crime fiction.’ The Times critic Marcel Berlins said: ‘William Shaw is a superb, flowing writer, both of police procedure and personal relations, and perhaps England’s most adept at using dialogue to propel his always intelligent stories.’

Before becoming a crime writer, William Shaw was an award-winning music journalist and the author of several non-fiction books including Westsiders: Stories of the Boys in the Hood, about a year spent with the young men of South Central Los Angeles, Spying In Guru Land, about time spent investigating religious cults, and A Superhero For Hire, a compilation of columns in the Observer Magazine.

Starting out as assistant editor of the post-punk magazine ZigZag, he has been a journalist for The Observer, The New York Times, Wired, Arena and The Face and was Amazon UK Music Journalist of the Year in 2003.

Clare Donoghue

Clare Donoghue’s debut novel was published in 2014 and she’s written four in her series of chilling and compelling police procedurals set in London. She has lived in Somerset since she stopped working as a City Lawyer. She was long-listed for the CWA Debut Dagger in 2011. Her latest novel, 'The Night Stalker', is set in Somerset. She’s a compulsive reader of crime novels.

Matt Gaw

Matt is a writer, journalist and naturalist who lives in Suffolk. His work has been published in the Guardian, the Telegraph and the Times. His first book, The Pull of the River is a beautifully written exploration of nature, place and friendship, and an ode to the great art – and joy – of adventure. His second, Under the Stars  is a captivating exploration of the power of the lights of night, he ventures forth into darkness to find out exactly what we're missing when we fill our world with artificial glow, obliterating the subtler natural lights that have guided us and wildlife for millennia. Published in March this year, his most recent book, In All Weathers documents a series of walks across Britain – through rain, fog, wind, ice and snow – to look again at our most widely accessed experience of the natural world, exploring where our weather comes from, the ways it is changing, and how we can embrace it as a positive presence in our lives. Matt Gaw’s second book, Under the Stars, A Journey into Light, was published in February, 2020 with Elliott & Thompson. His first, The Pull of the River, was described as “excellent” by the Times Literary Supplement.

Annie Percik

Annie is a London based fantasy author and freelance editor, who hosts a reviews podcast with her husband and writes a photo blog about her teddy bear's adventures (https://alobear.co.uk). Published in 2021 her first book, The Defiant Spark is set in a world similar to this one, but where there's no electricity and everything runs on magic. Engineer Abelard gets sucked into the mysterious world of the Artisans, who control access to the magical power that runs everyone's lives, and soon discovers things are not as they seem. Her second book A Spectrum of Heroes follows Anushka as she tries to prevent an interstellar war, while struggling to control her newfound superpowers, as well as fleeing the security chief of the secret lab she used to work for - who also happens to be her ex-girlfriend.

Mark Gwynne Jones

Winner of four Festival Fringe Awards for Best Spoken Word, Mark has published six collections of poetry and his work appears in numerous anthologies. Reviewing his collection, PsychicBread, Vicky Holman declared it 'Contagious, gritty, and sometimes startlingly sensitive'. Over several years Mark guested at Ronnie Scott's, Soho; he has read Under Milk Wood for Stan Tracey; was resident poet for London's Regents Park; and toured southern India and later the UK with poet and playwright, Dr Mamta Sagar.

Currently, Mark is creating a series of audio-artworks, Voices From The Peak, a poetic trip through his native Peak District. Out on Talking Elephant Records the work is described by The Times, as: 'The fascinating quest of the poet Mark Gwynne Jones. An array of audio odysseys and some marvellous Derbyshire reflections'.

Darren O’Sullivan

Darren is an author, screenwriter/director and theatre director. His thrillers have sold over 150,000 copies and been translated into German and Polish and sold into America, Canada and Australia. Two of his novels were selected for the prestigious Karin Slaughter Bookclub. His first novel, OUR LITTLE SECRET, is optioned by Rollick Film and his latest thriller THE PRICE was published by HQ, HarperCollins in June 2023.

He also writes under a pseudonym, BB Thomas. BB’s first book THE RAIN was published in 2021 exclusively for Audible and was an editor's choice.

Sarah Ward

Sarah Ward is the author of four DC Childs novels set in the Derbyshire Peak District where she lives. She also writes Gothic historical thrillers under the name Rhiannon Ward. Her first, The Quickening, was a 2020 Radio Times book of the year and her second historical novel The Shadowing was a Daily Express critic's favourite of the year. She has also written Doctor Who audio dramas. Sarah is on the Board of the Crime Writers Association and Friends of Buxton Festival. The Birthday Girl, the first book in her new Welsh based series is published in April and was described in the FT as 'channelling Christie-esque tropes'.

Esther Freud

Esther Freud trained as an actress before writing her first novel, Hideous Kinky, which was made into a film starring Kate Winslet. After publishing her second book she was chosen as one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists. Her other novels include The Sea House, Lucky Break and Mr Mac and Me, and most recently, I Couldn’t Love You More. Her first full length play Stitchers was produced in 2018, and in 2019 she was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Nick Acheson

Nick is the author of The Meaning of Geese, a book of thrilling encounters with wildlife, of tired legs, punctured tyres and inhospitable weather. Above all, it is the story of Nick Acheson’s love for the land in which he was born and raised, and for the wild geese that fill it with sound and spectacle every winter. Renowned naturalist and conservationist Nick Acheson spent countless hours observing and researching wild geese, transported through all weathers by his mother’s 40-year-old trusty red bicycle. He details the geese’s arrival, observing what they mean to his beloved Norfolk and the role they play in local people’s lives – and what role the birds could play in our changing world.

He has also contributed to Red Sixty Seven, Low Carbon Birding and three of Eliot and Thompson's Seasons anthologies, and he has published countless articles in BBC Wildlife, British Birds, The Big Issue, British Wildlife, The Guardian and many others.

J M Hewitt

Jeanette Hewitt, witing as J.M. Hewitt, is a crime and psychological thriller author. Her writing combines the complexity of human behaviour with often enchanting settings. In contrast to the sometimes dark content of her books, she lives a very nice life in a seaside town in Suffolk with her dog, Marley. When she was ten years old she'd read all the books she owned, all those on her mother's bookcase and everything the library had to offer. She decided the only course of action to take was to write her own stories. Thirty years later, she is still writing them. She has written 9 Crime thrillers and has contributed to 2 crime fiction anthologies. Jeanette’s first novel Exclusion Zone and its sequel Reckoning Point about murderous events surrounding the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. She went on to write 2 contemporary mysteries featuring Detective Carrie Flynn set on the Manchester Canals, The Night Caller and The Quiet Girls. Her most recent book, The Crew was published on 19th October 2023.

Polly Crosby

Polly writes gothic historical mysteries for adults, including VITA AND THE BIRDS and THE UNRAVELLING.  Her first novel for young adults - THIS TALE IS FORBIDDEN - came out in January with Scholastic. In 2018, Polly won Curtis Brown Creative's Yesterday Scholarship, which enabled her to finish her debut novel, THE ILLUSTRATED CHILD. Later the same year, she was awarded runner-up in the Bridport Prize's Peggy Chapman Andrews Award for a First Novel. Polly also received the Annabel Abbs Creative Writing Scholarship at the University of East Anglia. She grew up on the Suffolk coast, and spent many sunny summer days on Thorpeness's boating lake!