FELICITY BRYAN

AUTHORS REPRESENTED BY FELICITY BRYAN:

CARLOS ACOSTA  The greatest male ballet dancer of his generation, his story No Way Home is extraordinary. A delinquent street kid in the slums of Havana who dreamed of being Pele,  his father put him into ballet school to get him off the streets.  It has been published by HarperCollins to brilliant press coverage and reviews.  Scribner publish in the US.  Carlos' film Tocororo, based on his childhood in Havana, is a cult disc. A film based on the memoirs is in development.

KAREN ARMSTRONG Karen’s books on Islam, The Battle for God, Muhammad and A History of God (sold in 32 languages) have become required reading for those wishing to understand militant piety and her book on Buddha is a US bestseller. Atlantic UK and Knopf US publish The Great Transformation, about the period from 700-300 BC during which all the great major world religions - Taoism, Confusionism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Monotheism in the Middle East and Greek mystical rationalism - came into being. Her brilliant memoir The Spiral Staircase is a bestseller with Knopf and HarperCollins UK.  She is writing The Case for God.

JOHN BATCHELOR Professor Batchelor has the Chair in English Literature at Newcastle. He is the author of critical works on Conrad and Virginia Woolf. His much reviewed biography John Ruskin: An Intellectual Biography was published to coincide with a major exhibition for the 100th anniversary of Ruskin’s death. Lady Trevelyan and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood is his latest book, published by Chatto.  He is writing a biography of Tennyson.

MARY BERRY A legend in her time, Mary has written over 40 cookbooks, including the classic Aga Cookbook. The Ultimate Cake Book sold over 100,000 copies with BBC Books. Dorling Kindersley’s Mary Berry's Complete Cookbook and The New Cook are classics. Headline published Mary Berry’s New Aga Cookbook, Cook Now, Eat Later (shortlisted for the WHSmith Award) and Real Food Fast. Mary Berry's Christmas Collection, also Headline, is indispensable every winter. www.maryberry.co.uk

TIM BIRKHEAD A leading expert on bird reproduction and evolutionary biology, Birkhead is Professor of Behavioural Ecology at Sheffield University. The Red Canary - How Two Amateur Scientists Created the First Genetically Engineered Animal was published by Basic and Weidenfeld. Promiscuity – An Evolutionary History of Sperm Competition and Sexual Conflict was called ‘A marvellous and lucid survey, from bedbugs to humans’ by Nick Davies.  Bloomsbury will publish his next book The Wisdom of Birds - Their Extraordinary Lives Revealed.

JOHN BOWKER This eminent theologian edited the Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. His book The Meaning of Death received the HarperCollins Religious Book Award and What Muslims Believe sells well. He edited the Companion to the Bible for Dorling Kindersley, who published God – A Brief History in 2002. I.B.Tauris published The Sacred Neuron in 2005 and he has just written Beliefs that Changes the World for Quercus .

MICHAEL BRADDICK Professor in the excellent History department at Sheffield University, Michael specialises in 17th century England. Penguin Press are publishing his social history of the Civil War, God’s Fury, England’s Fire: England during the Civil Wars 1638-1651.

CHRISTOPHER BRICKELL This brilliant plantsman and botanist was Director General of the Royal Horticultural Society, where he worked for 35 years. He edited the RHS Gardeners' Encyclopedia of Plants & Flowers (which has sold over a million copies in the U.K. alone), The RHS Encyclopedia of Gardening and The RHS A to Z Dictionary of Plants for Dorling Kindersley, who also published Pruning and Training.

ROBIN BRIGGS A historian and fellow at All Souls' College, Oxford, Robin has published Early Modern France (OUP l977) and Communities of Belief (OUP 1989). HarperCollins (UK) and Viking (US) published Witches and Neighbours, his study of European witchcraft between l550 and 1660. He is writing a History of Western Europe 400 -1914 for Blackwells.

JOHN BROOKES A leading garden designer, John changed the approach to small gardens with A Room Outside. His books include The Garden Book, The Indoor Garden, The Country Gardener and The New Small Garden for Dorling Kindersley, who published The Complete Book of The Garden, The New Garden and Garden Masterclass. The Antique Collectors's Club have reissued his classic A Room Outside.

ARCHIE BROWN  Professor of Politics at Oxford, Archie is a leading expert on Communism and, in particlar, the Soviet system.  His book The Gorbachev Factor (OUP) won prizes.  He is writing a major book on The Rise and Fall of Communism for Bodley Head UK and Harper US, to be published twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

URSULA BUCHAN  A distinguished writer on gardening, Ursula read History at Cambridge and was then trained in Horticulture at Kew.  She has since written a regular column on gardening in the Telegraph and The Spectator.  She has written many books, the last of which, The English Garden, (Frances Lincoln) was a great critical success.  Her highly entertaining Spectator columns are published as collections as Good in a Bed and Better Against a Wall (Murray). Her book on Valerie Finnis won the Garden Writers Guild Award.

MICHAEL BUERK This enormously well-respected BBC reporter and presenter is also a superb writer. Hutchinson published his moving and sparkling memoir The Road Taken, which covers an extraordinarily varied life, from a tough childhood as the son of a bigamist father;starting life on a local newspaper; becoming an international reporter covering the Ethiopian famine, which led to Live Aid; the height of apartheid in South Africa; The Moral Maze and the 9 O’Clock News.

HUMPHREY CARPENTER (Estate of) A brilliant and multi-talented writer and musician, Humphrey was well-known for his biographies of Tolkein and Auden. His Benjamin Britten won the Royal Philharmonic Prize and his Ezra Pound: A Serious Character won the Duff Cooper Award. His biographies of Dennis Potter and Spike Milligan were both bestsellers. He also wrote group biographies, including That Was Satire, That Was, a study of the Sixties satirists. He had just delivered The Seven Lives of J ohn Murray, a history of the publishers, when he died on January 4th 2005 aged 58.

SARAH CHALLIS A delightful fresh voice in fiction, Headline  paid £160,000 for her best-selling novel Footprints in the Sand and its successor.  Of her first novel Rosamunde Pilcher writes: “I really enjoyed Turning for Home…I thought it so perceptive….Lady Pamela a star and the horse racing bit brilliant”.  Headline did a major promotion for On Dancing Hill – an enchanting novel about a Dorset farmer’s wife who reviews her marriage on a painting holiday in France.  Blackthorn Winter and Jumping to Conclusions have substantial sales in paperback. That Summer Affair was published in 2007.

JOHN CHARMLEY This historian's critical Churchill, the End of Glory caused a furore. He has also written biographies of Duff Cooper and Lord Lloyd. Viking UK publish The Princess and the Politicians, the life of Princess Lieven, the notorious Russian ambassadress to London 1812-32, whose lovers included Metternich and the Duke of Wellington and whose extraordinary correspondence throws fascinating light on the diplomatic intrigues of the day.

MARCUS CHOWN is an award-winning writer and broadcaster.  Formerly a radio astronomer at the California Institute of Technology, he is cosmology consultant of New Scientist. His books include Afterglow of Creation, The Universe Next Door, (which The Independent called "a parallel universe where science is actually fun") and Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You – all published hugely successfully by Faber.  In 2008 Faber publish his first children’s book, Felicity Frobisher and the Three-Headed Aldebaran Dust Devil. www.marcuschown.com

ARTEMIS COOPER A superb writer, her Paris After the Liberation, co-written with Antony Beevor, still sells. Cairo during the War was described as "a fascinating and entertaining evocation of a vanished world" by Penelope Lively. Her biography of Elizabeth David had wonderful reviews and sold splendidly in the US and UK. She is writing the biography of Patrick Leigh Fermor and recently edited Words of Mercury, a selection of his writings, which was a bestseller.

FRANCIS CRICK (Estate of) One of the greatest scientists of the 20th century, Francis won the Nobel Prize for the discovery of the double helix structure in DNA. Scribner and Simon & Schuster (UK) published The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul. He died in July 2004.

ROBERTSON DAVIES (Estate of) Canadian novelist, playwright and critic, Robertson Davies was one of the great writers of his time. His Deptford Trilogy is world-famous and What's Bred in the Bone was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. The Cunning Man (the third in his final trilogy) was on both the British and US bestseller lists and has sold throughout the world.

ISLA DEWAR Described by the Times as ‘Observant, needle sharp and very funny’ Isla’s eight novels all set in her native Scotland have captivated and moved her growing following. Keeping up With Magda, Women Talking Dirty, Giving up On Ordinary, It Could Happen to You, Two Kinds of Wonderful, The Woman Who Painted her Dreams, Dancing in a Distant Place (shortlisted for the RNA Award) and Secrets of a Family Album have all sold in translations and most have film options. Headline publish her most recent novel The Consequences of Marriage.

CHRISTOPHER DUGGAN Professor of Modern Italian History at Reading University, Christopher is author of the biography of Francesco Crispi (OUP 2002), A Concise History of Italy (CUP) and Fascism and the Mafia (Yale 1989). Penguin Press published The Making of Italy, a major history of Italy from 1860 to the present day, to widespread critical acclaim.

GEORGINA FERRY An award-winning science writer and broadcaster, Georgina’s biography of Dorothy Hodgkin, the first British woman to win the Nobel Prize for Science, was shortlisted for the Duff Cooper and Marsh Awards. Fourth Estate published A Computer called LEO, the story of the first office computer developed for Lyons teashops in 1954.  Chatto publish her latest biography Max Perutz and the Secret of Life.

JAMES FLEMING Described as “a first novel of quite exhilarating brilliance”, The Temple of Optimism received superb reviews. Cape published a brilliant successor Thomas Gage, which The Times described as ‘well fashioned, well characterized, wryly and suavely written’. It is set in rural Norfolk at the height of the railway boom. Both The Bookseller and Publishing News made it their ‘Reader’s Choice’. White Blood, published by Cape, is a savage and tender novel set during the Russian Revolution, described by The Spectator as "a cracking story...the best sort of historical novel". www.jamesfleming.co.uk

JONATHAN GLOVER This distinguished philosopher’s Humanity: The Twentieth Century Moral History, which studies what lessons can be learned from the psychology of 20th Century atrocities, was published by Cape/Pimlico and Yale in the US and continues to sell brilliantly in many languages. Jonathan is Professor of Medical Ethics at King’s College, London University.

ROBIN GRIFFITHS-JONES A theologian and Master of the Temple Church, Robin wrote The Four Witnesses, a study of the gospels as seen through the very different eyes of Mark, Matthew, Luke and John. Who were these people? What is their perspective on the story? He published a book on St. Paul, The Fifth Witness with Harper San Francisco, for whom he is writing a biography of Mary Magdalene.  Eerdmans and Canterbury Press publish The Da Vinci Code and the Secrets of the Temple. Harper San Francisco and Canterbury will also publish his book on Mary Magdalene.

JAMES HAMILTON An art historian, biographer and gloriously lively writer, James’ biographies of Turner and Faraday were very well received in UK and US. John Murray publish London Lights, the story of the flowering of London in the first half of the 19th century, told through the lives of the scientists, artists, engineers and inventors who helped transform it to the London of the Great Exhibition of 1851.  He is now working on a biography of the 19th century artist and engineer John Martin. www.jhhamilton.co.uk

NICOLAS HARBERD A leading plant biologist and Sibthorpian Professor of Plant Sciences at Oxford, Nick's beautifl book Seed to Seed is published by Bloomsbury in the UK and US. Part field/laboratory notebook, part sketchbook, part diary, this book is a dazzling evocation of the beauty of the natural world and an exhilarating explanation of the secret workings of plants. It has been published to high praise from reviewers.

PETER HEATHER An Oxford historian and author of Goths and Romans (OUP), Peter has delivered The Great Migration for Macmillan. Of his groundbreaking The Fall of the Roman Empire Tom Holland wrote ‘Heather provides the reader with drama and lurid colour as well as analysis….. he succeeds triumphantly’.

PENELOPE HOBHOUSE An internationally acclaimed gardener, her Penelope Hobhouse On Gardening described her famous garden at Tintinhull. Penelope's Colour in Your Garden was a best-seller. Plants in Garden History is a classic. She wrote The Story of Gardening for Dorling Kindersley who published with great success in October 2002. Cassell and Kales US published Persian Gardens to wonderful reviews. She now plans a book on Moghul Gardens.www.penelopehobhouse.com

BELINDA JACK A young Oxford academic and expert in French 19th and 20th century literature, Belinda wrote a major biography of George Sand for Chatto and Knopf which received tremendous reviews. Chatto published Beatrice’s Spell, the extraordinary story of the 17th Century Roman girl who was executed for the murder of her princely father, to excellent reviews (US The Other Press). She is working on an exploration of The Woman Reader for Yale.

SHAUN JOHNSON A famous journalist in South Africa and former newspaper editor, his first novel The Native Commissioner won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book in the African region, the Net Literary Award and was Booksellers’ Choice Book of the Year in South Africa.  It tells the tragic tale of a sincere white man trying to do his best for black people while working for the apartheid system which finally leads to his suicide.  It is published by Penguin, who have signed a two-book deal for UK and Commonwealth.

COLIN JONES Professor of History at the University of Warwick, Colin published several books on 18th century France and wrote The Great Nation, Volume I in the Penguin History of Modern France and the illustrated History of France for CUP. He wrote the book to accompany the National Gallery exhibition on Madame de Pompadour. Penguin Press have published his sweeping and vivid Paris – A History: awarded the Enid McLeod Literary Prize for the book which, in the judge’s opinion, contributes most to Franco-British understanding, written in the English language,

JONATHAN KEATES Jonathan has written prize-winning biographies of Handel and Purcell and a biography of Stendhal. His travel books on Italy, Italian Journeys, Venice, Tuscany and Umbria are wonderful. His has also written short story collections, Soon to be a Major Motion Picture, and Allegro Postillions, (James Tait Black and Hawthornden Prizes) and novels, The Strangers’ Gallery and Smile, Please. Chatto publish The Siege of Venice and a new edition of Handel, the Man and His Music.

TERENCE KEALEY This brilliant and controversial clinical biochemist wrote The Economic Laws of Scientific Research to great acclaim - “outstanding” Matt Ridley wrote in The Telegraph. He is a superb writer and has has published a multi-disciplinary trade book involving history, science and economics called Sex, Science and Profit (Heinemann).

THOMAS KIRKWOOD Britain's first Professor of Gerontology, Weidenfeld published his book Time of Our Lives - An Enquiry into the Biological Basis of Aging to brilliant reviews (OUP New York). A unique and wonderfully readable book which addresses the subject from a broad perspective, it argues that knowledge of the science of aging can help us all to age more successfully. He delivered the 2001 Reith Lectures The End of Age, which are published by Profile.

JAMES KYNGE For many years the Beijing Correspondent of the Financial Times, James is the author of China Shakes the World, a pacy and incisive book about China’s burgeoning growth and its effect on the economies of the rest of the world, published to great acclaim by Weidenfeld in the UK.  It has won the FT/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award.

STEPHEN LAW  Stephen is a bright young Oxford-based lecturer at London University.  Headline published The Philosophy Gym in 2003.  He wrote The Philosophy Files, a children’s book on philosophy, which Orion and has already sold in ten languages and The Xmas Files. Routledge publish The War for Children's Minds, a book on bringing up children in a Liberal Enlightenment tradition.of which Philip Pullman writes “Should be read by every parent, every teacher and every politician” Books available.(Japan Aspect). He has recently writtenThe Great Philosophers for Quercus and plans a book on atheism. www.thinking-big.co.uk

MICHAEL LEAPMAN Former Times journalist, Michael's books include the prize-winning Companion Guide to New York and Barefaced Cheek, his biography of Rupert Murdoch. He also writes on gardening and Headline published The Ingenious Mr. Fairchild, the intriguing story of the first gardener to discover hybridization, which sold well. Headline also published his biography of Inigo Jones, to excellent reviews. He is writing Massive: The Secret World of Giant Vegetables for Aurum.

DIARMAID MACCULLOCH Professor of Church History at Oxford, this brilliant historian’s Thomas Cranmer won the Duff Cooper Prize, Whitbread Biography and the James Tait Black Awards. Penguin UK and US publish Reformation, which The Telegraph described as ‘ a historical tour de force’ and ‘this remarkable book… MacCulloch combines this sovereign scholarship with the light touch’. It has already won The Wolfson History Prize and the British Academy Prize, and in March won the very prestigious National Book Critics Circle Prize in New York.Penguin UK and US have commissioned Christianity – The First 3,000 Years, which he is also presenting as a six-part series for the BBC. www.stx.ox.ac.uk/general/fellows/macculloch_diarmaid

AIDAN MACFARLANE Author of The Psychology of Childbirth, this eminent paediatrician wrote with Ann McPherson Diary of a Teenage Health Freak, which has sold over 400,000 copies and I'm a Health Freak, Too! They have also written a student health book Fresher Pressure. OUP have published The User, a book on teenagers and drugs, RU a Health Freak? and have recently published Drugs, Sex and Bullying.

SUE MACGREGOR Known to radio listeners for over twenty-five years, first as the voice of Woman’s Hour and then The Today Programme, her memoirs A Woman of Today have been published by Headline. They range over many issues, in particular the role of women in broadcasting and how coverage of women’s issues has changed over the years. The memoirs gained enormous coverage and hit the bestseller lists.

FIONA MADDOCKS Now Arts Correspondent of the Evening Standard, Fiona was chief music critic of The Observer (London). Her Hildegard of Bingen was a great critical success when published by Headline and Doubleday (US). She was part of the team that set up Channel 4, was the first Music editor at The Independent and was the founding editor of BBC Music Magazine. She was educated at the Royal College of Music and at Cambridge. She is writing a book on Salome for Chatto UK and Doubleday US.

JOHN MAN Travel writer and popular historian, John wrote The Survival of Jan Little (Viking).  Genghis Khan, published by Bantam, has been a best-seller and sold around the world.  Bantam have also published Atilla and his book on The Terracotta Warriors and are reissuing Alpha Beta and The Gutenberg Revolution.  His new book is The Great Wall, a history of the Great Wall of China.

CHRISTOPHER MCMANUS Professor of Psychology at University College, London, Christopher’s first trade book Right Hand, Left Hand, his account of lateralisation, won the Wellcome Science Prize and the 2003 Aventis Science Prize and has sold in many languages. He plans Head, Hand, Eye and Heart, a book on the psychology of art. www.righthandlefthand.com

ANN MCPHERSON A general practitioner, Ann has written many books on Women’s Health, including the very successful Woman's Hour Book of Health, but is best known for her books for teenagers. With Aidan Macfarlane she wrote the best-selling Diary of a Teenage Health Freak, I'm a Health Freak, Too! and Teenagers (Little Brown). OUP publish R U a Teenage Health Freak? and a series Sex, Bullying and Drugs.

MARTIN MEREDITH A former Journalist in Africa, Martin wrote the first major biography of Nelson Mandela. His books include The First Dance of Freedom, The Past is Another Country, In the Name of Apartheid, Coming to Terms - South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Africa’s Elephant - a History and Mugabe. The State of Africa, a huge and major book tracking the continent since the independence movements began in the 1960’s, is published by Simon and Schuster UK and Public Affairs, who have also published his major work Diamonds, Gold and War on the making of South Africa.

JAMES NAUGHTIE For many years a political correspondent, first on The Scotsman and then The Guardian, Jim is now a household name as presenter of Radio 4’s Today Programme. He has known Gordon Brown and Tony Blair for twenty years and The Rivals, his book about them was a great success with Fourth Estate. He has written The Accidental American, a book on Tony Blair, which is selling superbly in the US and UK. Murray published The Making of Music: a Journey with Notes, a book on the history of Western Music to accompany the BBC radio series.

JOHN JULIUS NORWICH A brilliant and internationally popular historian, John Julius’s history of Venice is a classic, as are his three-volume History of Byzantium and book on The Normans in The South which have all sold in many languages. The Paradise of Cities – Nineteenth Century Venice Through Foreign Eyes completes his historical studies of Venice and his major new book The Middle Sea: A History of The Mediterranean is published by Chatto. Weidenfeld publish the fascinating diaries of his father Duff Cooper which he has edited.  He is now writing The Keys of St Peter, a history of the Popes.

MIRABEL OSLER An enchanting voice in gardening, her A Gentle Plea for Chaos, In the Eye of the Garden and A Breath from Elsewhere are classics. She also writes on travel and The Elusive Truffle - In Search for the Legendary Food of France has a considerable following.

ELIZABETH PALMER Witty and racy, The Stainless Angel launched W.H Smith's Fresh Talent promotion and was followed by a series of highly successful novels, Plucking the Apple, Old Money, Flowering Judas and The Golden Rule. The historical novel The Dark Side of the Sun, set in war-torn London, charts the lives of two very different girls, both in their way involved in espionage. St. Martin’s publish The Distaff Side, her latest historical set in Edwardian London.

IAIN PEARS Author of the international bestseller An Instance of the Fingerpost, Iain has also written seven contemporary crime novels set in the art world. TV rights in the first, The Raphael Affair, have sold to Svensk Films. Cape published his The Dream of Scipio to brilliant reviews and again strong international sales. His latest novel, The Portrait, breaks new ground. It is written as a monologue by an artist to his sitter and mysteriously and brilliantly unravels their complicated past, leaving the reader in horrified suspense over their future.

ROBIN PILCHER A natural storyteller and now a New York Times bestseller, Robin’s first novel An Ocean Apart, a rich saga of a famous family of whisky distillers set in his native Scotland, sold in many languages. His next wonderful Scottish novel, Starting Over, hit the New York Times Bestseller list. A Risk Worth Taking has also sold superbly.  His latest novel for Little, Brown and St. Martin's Press is Starburst, a multi-stranded story set during the Edinburgh Festival.

ROSAMUNDE PILCHER With publication of Winter Solstice, her first novel for five years, Rosamunde hit No. 1 on the US and UK Bestseller Lists, with UK hardback sales of 200,000 and U.S. of 600,000 and paperback half a million in UK. It was a natural successor to Coming Home, which, like The Shellseekers, sold many millions. As ever, the critics have praised not just her storytelling qualities but her brilliance in creating characters which live on in the mind.

ELIZABETH PISANI A journalist and epidemiologist who has worked for many major aid funding organizations, Elizabeth does research into the spread of AIDS particularly in Asia.  Her book The Wisdom of Whores (website www.wisdomofwhores.com) is a fascinating description both of the world of her research and of the AIDS industry which uses that research.  Granta are publishing as a lead title in 2008. Ternyata.org

MATT RIDLEY Matt’s brilliant books The Red Queen - Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature, The Origins of Virtue and Genome - The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters have all been international sellers. Genome hit the New York Times list in hard and paperback and has sold in 27 languages. Nature via Nurture won the US National Academy of Sciences Book Prize and was shortlisted for The Aventis Science Prize. He has written a short biography of Francis Crick for the Harper Eminent Lives series and is now working on The Economics of Hope: Trade, Trust and Human Progress for HarperCollins UK and US.www.mattridley.co.uk

IAN ROBERTSON Mind Sculpture - Your Brain’s Untapped Potential was the first book by the Professor of Applied Psychology at Trinity College Dublin. This wonderfully accessible book has sold in many languages. The Mind’s Eye – Improve Your Mind Through the Power of Visualisation argued that we greatly under-use our capacity to think, and imagine using the power of wordless thinking. Ebury publish Stay Sharp with the Mind Doctor.

EUGENE ROGAN Director of The Middle East Centre at St Antony’s College Oxford, Eugene won the Albert Hourani Prize for Frontiers of The State in The Late Ottoman Empire and has edited books on the war for Palastine, Modern Jordan and Egypt. Penguin Press and Basic Books have commissioned a major history of the Arabs called Arabs In The Modern Word – A History. In this, his first trade book, he will draw on the Arabs’ experience of their history, giving a much more balanced picture of the past 500 years.

JOANNA SIMON Named Glenfiddich Wine Writer of the Year, Joanna is wine Correspondent of the Sunday Times and author of the highly successful Discovering Wine and Wine with Food, both published by Mitchell Beazley and sold in countries throughout the world. Dorling Kindersley have sold large quanties her Sunday Times Book of Wine in large quantities.

ANNIE SLOAN A pioneer in the field of paint finishes, Annie is author of the bestselling Decorative Paint Techniques and successful books on Gilding, Stencilling, Decoupage, Wood Finishes, and Painted Furniture. Paint Alchemy has just been published by Collins and Brown. Cico Books publish The Painted Garden and The Painted Kitchen. www.anniesloan.com

PHILIP STEPHENS The Financial Times’ distinguished Political Editor his book Politics and The Pound was described by Hugo Young as ‘ A brilliant piece of contemporary history’. He has covered Tony Blair’s career for 15 years and Viking US and Politicos UK published Blair – The Making of a World Leader.

MIRIAM STOPPARD One of Britain's best-loved doctors, Dr Stoppard's The Complete Book of Baby and Childcare is a constant best-seller. She has written books on family health, women's health, nutrition, sex and health for older people. Menopause was bestseller. DK published her major book The Family Health Guide, which was shortlisted for the WHSmith Award, the definitive Defying Age and The Family Health Guide, the charming and practical The Grandparents' Book and her latest title Your Pregnancy Planner. www.miriamstoppard.com

ROY STRONG Roy's magnum opus The Story of Britain hit the bestseller lists in 1996 and still sells and sells. The companion volume The Arts in Britain is also published by Pimlico. The beautiful The Artist and the Garden was published by Yale and received superb reviews. The Laskett, the story of the creation of his garden in Herefordshire with his wife Julia Trevelyan Oman, was published just after her death. His most recent books include the magisterial Coronation – a History, published by HarperCollins and the timely and wonderful A Little History of the English Country Church, published by Cape.

KATHERINE SWIFT A magic new voice in gardening, Katherine has written The Morville Hours around the house and garden where she lives in Shropshire.  It will be published by Bloomsbury. She has a growing following through her articles in The Times.

ROMA TEARNE  Her ambitious and complex first novel Mosquito, set against the background of her native Sri Lanka at the height of the troubles, was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel award and for the American Kiriyama Prize, whose judges refer to it as "an ambitious and affecting debut by a promising new talent". It is beautifully written and the characters entirely convincing. HarperCollins publish Bone China, also set in Sri Lanka and England.

ANGELA THIRLWELL For years a lecturer in literature at Birkbeck College, Angela compiled The Folio Society’s Anthology of Autobiography. Her Willam and Lucy – The Other Rossettis was published by Yale and very well received. Chatto have commissioned Ford’s Quartet, a biography of the Pre-Raphaelite Ford Maddox Brown as seen through the lives of the four very disparate women in his life. www.angelathirlwell.co.uk

KEITH THOMSON Zoologist and paleontologist, Professor Thomson was Director of Oxford’s Museum of Natural History. His books include Living Fossil - the Story of the Coelacanth and HMS Beagle - The Story of Darwin’s Ship. HarperCollins and Yale US publish The Watch on the Heath – Science and Religion Before Darwin which tells of the philosophers, clerics, scientists and naturalists who from around 1650 until The Origin of The Species (1859) tried to reconcile faith with the emerging conclusions of science.  His next book is The Legacy of the Mastodon (Yale).

ADRIAN TINNISWOOD This architectural historian’s His Invention So Fertile, a biography of Christopher Wren has been a huge success with Cape. Mitchell Beazley published Visions of Power and The Arts and Crafts House and The Art Deco House. Cape published By Permission of Heaven - the Great Fire of London and The Verneys, a brilliant story of a 17th century family based on over 30,000 documents, which was shortlisted for the 2007 Samuel Johnson Prize. Adrian is now writing Pirates - The Corsairs of the Barbary Coast, for Cape. www.adriantinniswood.co.uk

COLIN TUDGE Distinguished science writer and research fellow at LSE, Colin’s books include the encyclopaedic The Variety of Life (OUP). The Guardian describes So Shall We Reap as his ‘magnum opus’. It is a huge and significant work, a wake-up call to politicians who are fiddling while our prospect of survival burns… Tudge combines and eclectic mind with analytical powers and the humane sweep of a political philosopher’. Penguin Press and Crown US publish The Secret Life of Trees: How they Live and Why They Matter, which has received wonderful reviews. Penguin and Crown will publish his next major work The Bird.

ROSEMARY VEREY (Estate of) In her lifetime, Rosemary transformed English gardening. The Englishwoman's Garden was one of the most successful gardening books of the '70s. She also wrote The Scented Garden, Classic Garden Design, The Winter Garden, Good Planting and Good Planting Plans and the series English Country Gardens was screened by the BBC, who also published a tie-in book. Her reputation is international and she designed gardens all over the world.

HUGH WILFORD This young historian, working at California State University, Long Beach, has written The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America (Harvard), on how the CIA set up a wide network of 'front' organizations during the early days of the Cold War to counter Russian propaganda and how by the late 1960s the whole enterprise had fallen into disgrace.

MARTIN WOLF Associate Editor and Chief Economics Commentator on the Financial Times, Martin has a worldwide following. His Why Globalization Works is both necessary and timely and has sold well with Yale in the UK and UK. He argues the case for a liberal economic order which the anti-globalisation protesters would choose to smash: “We must choose between building on what our predecessors have achieved over the past half century or throwing it away, again”. His next book is Fixing Global Finance, which will be published by Johns Hopkins Press.

LUCY WORSLEY Chief Curator of the Historic Royal Palaces, Lucy is a sparkling young historian whose PhD thesis was on William Cavendish. Faber publish Cavalier - A Tale of Chivalry, Passion and Great Houses, a genuine ‘upstairs-downstairs’ of life in the home of a Cavalier and have commissioned Courtier.www.lucyworsley.com

LUCY YOUNG Acknowledged by Mary Berry as her “right arm”, food writer and demonstrator Lucy brings together a wealth of culinary experience and a fresh outlook in her first solo cookbook Secrets From a Country Kitchen, published by Ebury.  Her latest book is a modern take on Aga cookery, Aga Easy, which is published by Absolute and is a must-have for Aga-owners. Ebury also publish another indespensible book for Aga owners Secrets of Aga Cakes. www.maryberry.co.uk/aga_lucyyoung.asp