Michael Ridpath was born in Devon in 1961, but grew up in Yorkshire.  He was educated at boarding school in Somerset and at Merton College, Oxford, where he read Modern History.  After university he worked in the City as a bond trader.  In his spare time, he wrote a novel, a financial thriller called Free to Trade, which was published in 1995, eventually being translated into 37 languages.  Seven more financial thrillers followed, and then the Fire and Ice series of crime novels, featuring the Icelandic detective Magnus Jonson.  Traitor’s Gate, set in Berlin in 1938, is his first historical novel.  The sequel, Shadows of War, is set in the phoney war in France and Holland in 1939-1940.  He lives in North London.

Michael Jecks author of “the most wickedly plotted medieval mystery novels” (The Times), is a past Chairman of the Crime Writers’ Association. His books provide “a fascinating portrayal of medieval life” (Good Book Guide).

He has written 53 novels, with the long-running Templar crime series, his Vintener series, the hilarious Bloody Mary series, “Plot twists abound, but the novel’s greatest strength is its jaunty tone, plunging the reader into raucous Elizabethan England (Publishers Weekly, 24 July, 2017) as well as his 1920s story set in Shanghai, One Last Dance Before I Die.

Always busy, Michael is now writing a saga based on the Crusades. The first, Pilgrim’s War, “a fabulously rich chronicle of the First Crusade (For Winter Nights Reviews – https://forwinternights.wordpress.com/2018/02/09/pilgrims-war-by-michael-jecks/)

He has contributed to many short story anthologies, and collaborated on novels with Medieval Murderers and The Detection Club.

Michael was shortlisted for the Theakston’s prize for the best crime book of the year in 2007 for The Death Ship of Dartmouth. He is the founder of Medieval Murderers, and joined Bloody Brits, both performance groups. In 2004/5 he was Chairman of the Crime Writers’ Association, and has judged prizes as diverse as the Debut Dagger and the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger.

He has been recognised by both Conway Stewart and Visconti fountain pens. In 2014 he was the International Guest of Honour at the Crime Writers of Canada in Toronto, and was the Grand Marshal of the first parade in the New Orleans Mardi Gras.

Michael is a regular panellist and speaker at literary festivals and library events. He lives on Dartmoor with his family and dogs – and keeps fit by Morris dancing with large sticks and iron bars.

Mike lives in Petersfield, Hampshire, with his wife and four kids. His interest in British history is lifelong, and childhood holidays were spent visiting castles and battlefields. He became a Sharpe junkie at the age of 13, and his fascination with the seventeenth century was piqued partly by the fact that his hometown is steeped in the history of the period. That interest spawned what became the critically acclaimed series, The Civil War Chronicles (John Murray/Hodder) one of which, Devil’s Charge, was chosen as a book of the year by the Sunday Times. He has also produced Highwayman for Endeavour Press/Sharpe Books, a trilogy of novellas set during the time when England was a republic.

Mike’s latest novel, The Savage Isle, is set during the Roman invasion of Britannia.

Matthew Plampin is the author of five historical novels: The Street Philosopher (2009), The Devil’s Acre (2010), Illumination (2013), Will and Tom (2015) and Mrs Whistler (2018), which was shortlisted for the 2019 HWA Gold Crown. His sixth, These Wicked Devices, will be published by the Borough Press on 3rd July 2025.

Martine’s debut, An Appetite for Violets, takes sharp-witted cook Biddy Leigh on a murderous trip to Italy. Fay Weldon described its mix of crime, gastronomy and history, as a new genre, the ‘culinary gothic’. It was a Booklist top ten crime fiction debut of the year. The Penny Heart (A Taste for Nightshade in the US) is a Sunday Times Best Summer Read that draws on cooking, trickery and revenge. The stars, riddles and murder align in The Almanack, a historical mystery featuring fifty authentic riddles. In its sequel, The Prophet, destiny and murder weave an intricate web around Tabitha’s new life.

Drawing on her experience in psychometric testing in the NHS, she has now created a chilling new crime series comprising Sharp Scratch and Isolation Ward, both set in northern England in the 1980s.

Married with one son, Martine lives in Cheshire, England, having lived for some years in New Zealand where she had a Creative Arts Scholarship. She was also Writer in Residence at Hosking Houses Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon and Hawkwood College, Stroud.

Her short story, ‘A Mouthful of Restaurant’, appears in the 2017 Crime Writers Association Anthology, ‘The Mystery Tour’.

Martine was longlisted for the Mogford Prize for Food and Drink Writing in 2020.

Marie Macpherson  holds a PhD in Russian Literature from Strathclyde University. She spent a year in the former Soviet Union to research her thesis on the 19th century Russian writer, Mikhail Lermontov, said to be descended from the Scottish bard and seer, Thomas the Rhymer. Returning to Scotland, she held posts at the universities of Strathclyde and Edinburgh teaching languages and literature. Now retired from academic life, she has time to pursue her interest in writing historical fiction set in Scotland. She won the Martha Hamilton Prize for Creative Writing at Edinburgh University in 1994 and in 2011 was named ‘Writer of the Year’ by Tyne and Esk writers.