Born in Birmingham, Rachel spent her childhood in the Northeast, then the Midlands. She studied history at King’s College London, where her fascination for women’s history took root. After a brief stint in politics, Rachel built a senior career in corporate communications. In 2021, she was runner-up in the Harper’s Bazaar Short Story Competition and won the Irish Writers Centre 2022 Novel Fair.

Rachel collects historical monuments the way other people collect stamps. She loves visiting anywhere old – houses, churches, mills, you name it. She also enjoys baking and once reached the last round of hopefuls to be chosen for the Great British Bake Off, before a millefeuille proved her undoing.

Rachel lives in London with her three teenagers, two cats and one dog.

You can find Rachel on Instagram @rachelblackmorewriter

Rachel’s debut novel COSTANZA will be published by Renegade, an imprint of Dialogue Books in August 2024.

Richard Kurti has been a professional writer for over twenty-six years, working for a wide variety of clients, from US studios such as Warner Bros, Universal and Fox Searchlight, to broadcasters such as the BBC, ITV and Sky. More recently, he diversified into radio drama, with both podcast serials (Amazon Audible) and broadcast drama (BBC Radio 4). Constantly looking to broaden his storytelling skills, he wrote two YA novels (Walker Books), and has just completed Basilica Diaries, a five book series of Renaissance thrillers for Sapere Books. He has recently sold the rights to his first stage play, Marriage Bureau. Shows he’s created have won numerous awards including BAFTAs, Royal Television Society & New York Festival International Radio Awards.

For screenwriting credits: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0475993/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rosemary Hayes has written over fifty books for children and young adults. She writes  in different genres, from edgy teenage fiction (The Mark), historical fiction (The Blue Eyed Aborigine and Forgotten Footprints), middle grade fantasy (Loose Connections, The Stonekeeper’s Child and Break Out)  to chapter books for early readers and texts for picture books. Many of her books have won or been shortlisted for awards and several have been translated into different languages.

Rosemary has travelled widely but now lives in South Cambridgeshire. She has a background in publishing, having worked for Cambridge University Press before setting up her own company Anglia Young Books which she ran for some years. She has been a reader for a well known authors’ advisory service and runs creative writing workshops for both children and adults.

Rosemary has recently turned her hand to adult fiction and her historical novel ‘The King’s Command’ is about the terror and tragedy suffered by the French Huguenots during the reign of Louis XIV.  ‘Traitor’s Game’ and ‘The King’s Agent’ are about spying during the time of the Napoleonic Wars and are the first two books in the ‘Soldier Spy’ trilogy.

Rob Lloyd (writing as Robert J. Lloyd), the son of parents who worked in the British Foreign Office, grew up in South London, Innsbruck, and Kinshasa. He studied for a Fine Art degree, starting as a landscape painter but becoming a sculpture/photography/installation/performance generalist. While studying for his MA degree in The History of Ideas he read Robert Hooke’s diary, detailing the life and experiments of this extraordinary man. Rob’s MA thesis and the Hooke & Hunt series of historical thrillers are all about him.

After a 20-year career as a secondary school teacher, he’s now returned to painting and writing. He’s married and has three splendid children, and lives in the Brecon Beacons.

He’s published by Melville House Publishing, and represented by Gaia Banks at Sheil Land Associates.

The Bloodless Boy, set in London in 1678, is his debut novel. Its sequel, set a year later, is The Poison Machine. A third book in the series, The Bedlam Cadaver, was released in June 2024.