Vicky Allan is an environmental writer for the Herald, and author. In recent years her focus has been on a series of non-fiction books about wild swimming, Taking the Plunge and The Art of Wild Swimming, as well as Still Hot!, a collection of stories about the menopause. She is the author of a creepy cat novel, titled Stray. She lives in Edinburgh. When she's not writing, or seeking out a story, she likes to be plunging into some very cold water or roaming the glens and bens of Scotland.

Lucy Barker is the author of The Other Side of Mrs Wood (4th Estate). She holds an MA in Victorian Studies from Birkbeck College, University of London, and has a passion for uncovering the real lives of women from this period. Always a dreamer, Lucy has written stories her whole life and is a Curtis Brown Creative and Novelry alumnus. She was the runner-up for the Curtis Brown First Novel Prize with an early partial draft of The Other Side of Mrs Wood. Born in Sussex, she now lives in Bath with her husband and two small children.

Scottish illustrator Johanna Basford has been at the forefront of the adult colouring phenomenon since the launch of her first book, Secret Garden. Johanna has sold over 25 million adult colouring books worldwide and is excited to release her 12th, Small Victories in November this year. Johanna’s work is inspired by the flora and fauna surrounding her home in rural Aberdeenshire that she shares with her daughters, Evie and Mia. When she’s not creating inky wonderlands, Johanna enjoys climbing mountains, swimming in the sea and drinking cups of tea in the garden.

Sophie Berrebi is an author, scholar and curator specialised in modern and contemporary art. An associate professor of art history at the University of Amsterdam, she is the author of The Shape of Evidence, Contemporary Art and the Document, (Valiz, 2015) and of Dubuffet and the City: People, Place and Urban Space (Hauser & Wirth Publishers, 2018), which received the 2019 Richard Schlagman award for best book of art history. Her most recent exhibition was ‘Seventy Years of The Second Sex, a Conversation between Works and Words’ (Hauser &Wirth Zürich, 2022). The Sharing Economy (Scribner 2023) is her first novel.

Alistair Braidwood runs the website Scots Whay Hae! as well as hosting the accompanying podcast where he talks to some of the most interesting names involved in Scottish culture and the arts. He also fronts the SWH! Show on CamGlen Radio, reviews and interviews for a number of literary and cultural publications, regularly chairs and MCs at book, music, and art events and festivals, and has been published in several academic journals and books.

William Boyd was born in Ghana and grew up there and in Nigeria. His first novel, A Good Man in Africa, won the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Somerset Maugham Prize. His other novels include Stars and Bars, The New Confessions, and Brazzaville Beach which won the McVitie Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. An Ice Cream War was also shortlisted for the 1982 Booker Prize and won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. His novel Any Human Heart won the Prix Jean Monnet award and Restless won the Costa Novel of the Year Award. His latest novel, The Romantic, was released in October 2022.

A writer and art critic, James Cahill’s debut novel, Tiepolo Blue, was published in 2022 by Sceptre Books, and was recently shortlisted for the Author’s Club Best First Novel Award. His second novel, The Violet Hour, is due in 2024. His writing has appeared in publications including the Los Angeles Review of Books, the London Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, and the Daily Telegraph. He is based alternately in London and Los Angeles.

Since playing Ophelia in Hamlet at The Old Vic Theatre over 60 years ago, Judi Dench has garnered wide popular and critical admiration for a career marked by outstanding performances in classical and contemporary roles on both stage and screen. She has won numerous major awards – including an Academy Award, ten BAFTA Awards and a record eight Laurence Olivier Awards, and in recognition of her many achievements, she received an OBE (Order of the British Empire) in 1970, became a DBE (Dame of the British Empire) in 1988, and in 2005 was awarded a Companion of Honour.

Grace Dent is one of Britain’s best known food writers and restaurant critic for The Guardian; she has been a regular face of BBC1’s MasterChef since 2013. Her food memoir Hungry won the Fortnum and Mason’s Book Award and the Lakeland Book Prize. She recently presented Best of Britain By The Sea with Ainsley Harriott for C4 and was a judge on The World Cook for Amazon Prime, as well as presenting Million Pound Buffet for C5. Grace's new book Comfort Eating, inspired by her award-winning podcast Comfort Eating, is published in October 2023 along with a UK tour.

Suzie Edge trained as a molecular biologist before moving to clinical medicine, to spend more time talking to people, rather than just bugs in test tubes. She went on to work as a junior doctor in a variety of medical specialties, and whilst training also completed an MLitt in Modern History to feed her fascination for the history of the human body and the history of medicine. Always on the lookout for gory historical details, Suzie loves telling stories of how we have treated our human bodies in life and in death and has been shortlisted by TikTok UK as BookTok Author of the Year. Her first book, Mortal Monarchs, was published by Wildfire in September 2022. Vital Organs, A history of the world’s most famous body parts will be published on 28th September 2023. Suzie will also be publishing a series of children’s books about the history of the human body called History Stinks.

Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ was born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, and raised in Awka, Nigeria. A product of not one but two Nigerian boarding schools, she went on to attend Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Nigeria and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Her work has been shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson Award (2015), a Nommo Award (2020), and the Caine Prize for African Literature (2017, 2020). Her debut novel Dazzling won the inaugural Curtis Brown First Novel Prize and was published by Wildfire in 2023. She lives in East Sussex.

An historical biographer and author, Flora Fraser delves into the lives of women from the 18th Century. Her books include Beloved Emma: The Life of Emma Hamilton, The Unruly Queen, Princess: The Daughters of George III, Venus of Empire: The Life of Pauline Bonaparte and  George & Martha Washington: A Revolutionary Marriage, which won the 2016 George Washington Prize.  Flora was named after the Scottish Jacobite heroine Flora Macdonald, who assisted Bonnie Prince Charlie to escape from Scotland following the Jacobites’ defeat at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, whose story she tells in Pretty Young Rebel.  The paperback of Pretty Young Rebel  is set to be published by Bloomsbury 14th September 2023.

Scottish nature poet John Glenday is the author of four collections: Grain (Picador 2009) was shortlisted for the Griffin International Poetry Prize and the Ted Hughes Award, and The Golden Mean (Picador 2015) was shortlisted for the Saltire Scottish Poetry Book of the Year and won the 2016 Roehampton Poetry Prize. His most recent publications are a limited edition artbook mira, (Coast to Coast to Coast 2019) and a pamphlet, The Firth (Mariscat Press 2020). His Selected Poems was published by Picador in 2020. In 2023, John was commissioned by the Fife Arms to write a commemorative poem, The Birk, to mark the Coronation of King Charles III.

Simon Groom is the Director of Modern & Contemporary Art at the National Galleries of Scotland. Born in Liverpool, he graduated with a degree in English Literature from Edinburgh University, before spending time living and working in Japan and Italy, and then completed an MA and PhD in post-war international art at the Courtauld Institute of Art. With a specialist interest in art from Asia, Simon has curated numerous exhibitions and was previously the curator at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, and Head of Exhibitions at Tate Liverpool.

Anthony Horowitz CBE is one of the most prolific and successful writers in the UK, working across YA fiction, detective novels, TV, films, plays and journalism. Anthony has written 56 books. Close to Death, the fifth book in the Hawthorne/Horowitz series will be published early next year. His TV work includes the award-winning Foyle’s War, Midsomer Murders and the adaptation of his own novel, Magpie Murders. In 2022, Anthony was awarded a CBE for services to literature.

Historian and educator Maureen Kelly is passionate about preserving the history of Braemar. As a member of Braemar Local History Group, Maureen has written several books on the village’s fascinating history and directly supported the Fife Arms’ restoration programme through her extensive knowledge of the area and its many stories. From the colourful characters of the Jacobites in the Upper Deeside to the First and Second World Wars, Maureen’s latest book Historical Guide to Braemar Castle delves into the dramatic history behind the distinctive castle and its surrounds.

Sam Leith is the literary editor of The Spectator, and the author of several books including You Talkin' To Me: Rhetoric from Aristotle to Trump and Beyond and Write To The Point: How To Be Clear, Correct and Persuasive on the Page.  He's currently working on The Haunted Wood, a history of children's literature to be published by Oneworld next autumn.

Musa Mayer’s first book, Night Studio, A Memoir of Philip Guston, was published in 1988. Her cancer diagnosis the following year led to a twenty-five-year career as a patient and research advocate devoted to helping people living with advanced breast cancer. In 2015, Musa retired from advocacy to focus full time on her father’s legacy which included curating Guston exhibitions in New York, London, Hong Kong and Los Angeles. Besides managing the Guston estate, Musa is President of The Guston Foundation, whose legacy projects include the website PhilipGuston.org, built around a 50-year chronology of Guston’s career and the catalogues raisonné of his paintings, drawings, and archives that detail all exhibitions, bibliography and holdings in museum collections around the world. Musa lives in New York City with her husband, Tom.

Mary McCartney is a portrait and fine art photographer, filmmaker, cookbook author, and Global Ambassador for Meat Free Monday. Mary has executive produced and presented three seasons of her Emmy nominated plant-based cooking show, “Mary McCartney Serves It Up!” for Discovery+. Her third cookbook, Feeding Creativity, published by TASCHEN is a unique hybrid coffee table, portrait and recipe book. In this book, she blends her passions for food and photography: cooking 60 of her favourite recipes for friends, family, and members of the creative community. Mary takes each person a specially prepared dish and photographs their culinary encounters, sharing her anecdotes from their time together.

Lucy Morris is a literary agent at Curtis Brown, where she represents novelists and non-fiction writers. In 2019, she set up the Curtis Brown First Novel Prize as part of the agency's 120th birthday celebrations, and is proud to work with the winner, Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ, and runner-up, Lucy Barker. Lucy is also part of the team behind Discoveries, a development programme for unpublished women writers launched in partnership with the Women’s Prize Trust, Audible and Curtis Brown Creative. Now going into its fourth year, the programme culminates in the Discoveries Prize for a novel-in-progress, where Lucy sits on the judging panel.

A local author of four children’s novels, Sabine Muir has collaborated with illustrator Agnieszka Brozek to produce four picture books. Their first book, I’m Not That Scary, was published at the end of 2019, just before the start of Covid. Josephine Drama Queen came out during the pandemic and their third book, The VIBs - The Very Important Bees, is aimed at helping children understand how important bees are to the environment. Their latest publication We Don’t Want Your Rubbish, is about sea creatures dealing with plastic pollution of the ocean.

A trained actor from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Brendan’s expansive career has seen him perform extensively at many of the UK’s top theatres. He has performed in several of Shakespeare’s plays at the Globe Theatre including The Tempest, Cymbeline, Measure for Measure, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Duchess of Malfi, Henry V, Henry VI, Parts One, Two & Three, and Antony and Cleopatra. As a director, his work has been seen on stages across the UK and abroad. Directing credits for Shakespeare’s Globe include several of the Bard’s well-loved plays such as The Comedy of Errors, Pericles, Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, The Taming of the Shrew, and As You Like It.

A British food writer and critic, Tom Parker Bowles won the Guild of Food Writers 2010 award for his writings on British food. He is well known for his appearances as a judge and critic in numerous television food series including MasterChef and for his reviews of restaurant meals around the UK and overseas for GQ, Esquire and The Mail on Sunday. Tom is also a successful author of 8 books.

A Scottish poet, writer and musician, Don Paterson‘s writing has won many awards, including the Whitbread Poetry Prize, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the Costa Poetry Award, all three Forward Prizes, and the T. S. Eliot Prize. He was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2009. Having previously taught at the University of St Andrews, he is now Emeritus Professor of Poetry in the School of English. From 1997 to 2022, Paterson was poetry editor at Picador. Paterson's memoir Toy Fights: A Boyhood was published by Faber in January 2023.

CEO of The Queen's Reading Room, Vicki is a content producer, festival programmer and all-round bookworm. With a background in literary festivals, TV and Radio, including directing the BBC’s 500 Words competition, Vicki is passionate about making great stories accessible to everyone.

Executive Director of the registered charity, Women's Prize Trust, their mission is to change the world through books by women and open up pathways into reading and writing for the storytellers and booklovers of tomorrow. Named a Bookseller Rising Star in 2013, Claire worked as an editor, before moving into the charity sector. She was Head of Arts at BookTrust where she oversaw a portfolio of reading and writing initiatives before moving into consultancy for literary & media clients. Claire is a passionate advocate of the transformative power of reading and writing, and the ongoing need to invest in and cheerlead women.

Rebecca Smith is an author and journalist from Cumbria, now living in Central Scotland with her partner and three children. She worked for BBC Radio for over a decade producing and researching live and pre-recorded programmes. Her first book Rural: The Lives of the Working-Class Countryside is out now.

Best known for a love of fresh, simple seafood, Rick made his name in the 90s with his earliest books and television series based on his life as chef and owner of The Seafood Restaurant (established in 1975) in the fishing port of Padstow. He has now written over 25 cookery books, a memoir and made over 30 programmes including 12 cookery series. In 2018 Rick was awarded a CBE for Services to the Economy. His latest book, Rick Stein's Simple Suppers will be released in October 2023.

A literary phenomenon, David’s books have been translated into fifty-five languages and have sold more than fifty-four million copies worldwide. They have achieved huge critical acclaim and have spent a record-breaking 230 weeks at number one in the Children’s charts. Critics have compared David to his favourite author, the legendary Roald Dahl.

Doreen was born and brought up in Braemar with family roots going back generations. Her return to the village coincided with the community taking over the operation of Braemar Castle, which has strong historical connections with the Jacobite cause, as a community enterprise. Her background in storytelling and management for the BBC have proved useful skills in creating and running a Visitor Attraction. It has been a joy for Doreen, unearthing long forgotten stories of life here on the Braes of Mar. Tales of those who lived here and those who, over the centuries, visited this spectacular remote part of Scotland to hunt, fish, walk, climb and enjoy this breathtaking landscape.

Vicky Allan is an environmental writer for the Herald, and author. In recent years her focus has been on a series of non-fiction books about wild swimming, Taking the Plunge and The Art of Wild Swimming, as well as Still Hot!, a collection of stories about the menopause. She is the author of a creepy cat novel, titled Stray. She lives in Edinburgh. When she's not writing, or seeking out a story, she likes to be plunging into some very cold water or roaming the glens and bens of Scotland.

Lucy Barker is the author of The Other Side of Mrs Wood (4th Estate). She holds an MA in Victorian Studies from Birkbeck College, University of London, and has a passion for uncovering the real lives of women from this period. Always a dreamer, Lucy has written stories her whole life and is a Curtis Brown Creative and Novelry alumnus. She was the runner-up for the Curtis Brown First Novel Prize with an early partial draft of The Other Side of Mrs Wood. Born in Sussex, she now lives in Bath with her husband and two small children.

Scottish illustrator Johanna Basford has been at the forefront of the adult colouring phenomenon since the launch of her first book, Secret Garden. Johanna has sold over 25 million adult colouring books worldwide and is excited to release her 12th, Small Victories in November this year. Johanna’s work is inspired by the flora and fauna surrounding her home in rural Aberdeenshire that she shares with her daughters, Evie and Mia. When she’s not creating inky wonderlands, Johanna enjoys climbing mountains, swimming in the sea and drinking cups of tea in the garden.

Sophie Berrebi is an author, scholar and curator specialised in modern and contemporary art. An associate professor of art history at the University of Amsterdam, she is the author of The Shape of Evidence, Contemporary Art and the Document, (Valiz, 2015) and of Dubuffet and the City: People, Place and Urban Space (Hauser & Wirth Publishers, 2018), which received the 2019 Richard Schlagman award for best book of art history. Her most recent exhibition was ‘Seventy Years of The Second Sex, a Conversation between Works and Words’ (Hauser &Wirth Zürich, 2022). The Sharing Economy (Scribner 2023) is her first novel.

Alistair Braidwood runs the website Scots Whay Hae! as well as hosting the accompanying podcast where he talks to some of the most interesting names involved in Scottish culture and the arts. He also fronts the SWH! Show on CamGlen Radio, reviews and interviews for a number of literary and cultural publications, regularly chairs and MCs at book, music, and art events and festivals, and has been published in several academic journals and books.

William Boyd was born in Ghana and grew up there and in Nigeria. His first novel, A Good Man in Africa, won the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Somerset Maugham Prize. His other novels include Stars and Bars, The New Confessions, and Brazzaville Beach which won the McVitie Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. An Ice Cream War was also shortlisted for the 1982 Booker Prize and won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. His novel Any Human Heart won the Prix Jean Monnet award and Restless won the Costa Novel of the Year Award. His latest novel, The Romantic, was released in October 2022.

A writer and art critic, James Cahill’s debut novel, Tiepolo Blue, was published in 2022 by Sceptre Books, and was recently shortlisted for the Author’s Club Best First Novel Award. His second novel, The Violet Hour, is due in 2024. His writing has appeared in publications including the Los Angeles Review of Books, the London Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, and the Daily Telegraph. He is based alternately in London and Los Angeles.

Since playing Ophelia in Hamlet at The Old Vic Theatre over 60 years ago, Judi Dench has garnered wide popular and critical admiration for a career marked by outstanding performances in classical and contemporary roles on both stage and screen. She has won numerous major awards – including an Academy Award, ten BAFTA Awards and a record eight Laurence Olivier Awards, and in recognition of her many achievements, she received an OBE (Order of the British Empire) in 1970, became a DBE (Dame of the British Empire) in 1988, and in 2005 was awarded a Companion of Honour.

Grace Dent is one of Britain’s best known food writers and restaurant critic for The Guardian; she has been a regular face of BBC1’s MasterChef since 2013. Her food memoir Hungry won the Fortnum and Mason’s Book Award and the Lakeland Book Prize. She recently presented Best of Britain By The Sea with Ainsley Harriott for C4 and was a judge on The World Cook for Amazon Prime, as well as presenting Million Pound Buffet for C5. Grace's new book Comfort Eating, inspired by her award-winning podcast Comfort Eating, is published in October 2023 along with a UK tour.

Suzie Edge trained as a molecular biologist before moving to clinical medicine, to spend more time talking to people, rather than just bugs in test tubes. She went on to work as a junior doctor in a variety of medical specialties, and whilst training also completed an MLitt in Modern History to feed her fascination for the history of the human body and the history of medicine. Always on the lookout for gory historical details, Suzie loves telling stories of how we have treated our human bodies in life and in death and has been shortlisted by TikTok UK as BookTok Author of the Year. Her first book, Mortal Monarchs, was published by Wildfire in September 2022. Vital Organs, A history of the world’s most famous body parts will be published on 28th September 2023. Suzie will also be publishing a series of children’s books about the history of the human body called History Stinks.

An historical biographer and author, Flora Fraser delves into the lives of women from the 18th Century. Her books include Beloved Emma: The Life of Emma Hamilton, The Unruly Queen, Princess: The Daughters of George III, Venus of Empire: The Life of Pauline Bonaparte and  George & Martha Washington: A Revolutionary Marriage, which won the 2016 George Washington Prize.  Flora was named after the Scottish Jacobite heroine Flora Macdonald, who assisted Bonnie Prince Charlie to escape from Scotland following the Jacobites’ defeat at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, whose story she tells in Pretty Young Rebel.  The paperback of Pretty Young Rebel  is set to be published by Bloomsbury 14th September 2023.

Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ was born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, and raised in Awka, Nigeria. A product of not one but two Nigerian boarding schools, she went on to attend Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Nigeria and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Her work has been shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson Award (2015), a Nommo Award (2020), and the Caine Prize for African Literature (2017, 2020). Her debut novel Dazzling won the inaugural Curtis Brown First Novel Prize and was published by Wildfire in 2023. She lives in East Sussex.

Scottish nature poet John Glenday is the author of four collections: Grain (Picador 2009) was shortlisted for the Griffin International Poetry Prize and the Ted Hughes Award, and The Golden Mean (Picador 2015) was shortlisted for the Saltire Scottish Poetry Book of the Year and won the 2016 Roehampton Poetry Prize. His most recent publications are a limited edition artbook mira, (Coast to Coast to Coast 2019) and a pamphlet, The Firth (Mariscat Press 2020). His Selected Poems was published by Picador in 2020. In 2023, John was commissioned by the Fife Arms to write a commemorative poem, The Birk, to mark the Coronation of King Charles III.

Simon Groom is the Director of Modern & Contemporary Art at the National Galleries of Scotland. Born in Liverpool, he graduated with a degree in English Literature from Edinburgh University, before spending time living and working in Japan and Italy, and then completed an MA and PhD in post-war international art at the Courtauld Institute of Art. With a specialist interest in art from Asia, Simon has curated numerous exhibitions and was previously the curator at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, and Head of Exhibitions at Tate Liverpool.

Historian and educator Maureen Kelly is passionate about preserving the history of Braemar. As a member of Braemar Local History Group, Maureen has written several books on the village’s fascinating history and directly supported the Fife Arms’ restoration programme through her extensive knowledge of the area and its many stories. From the colourful characters of the Jacobites in the Upper Deeside to the First and Second World Wars, Maureen’s latest book Historical Guide to Braemar Castle delves into the dramatic history behind the distinctive castle and its surrounds.

Anthony Horowitz CBE is one of the most prolific and successful writers in the UK, working across YA fiction, detective novels, TV, films, plays and journalism. Anthony has written 56 books. Close to Death, the fifth book in the Hawthorne/Horowitz series will be published early next year. His TV work includes the award-winning Foyle’s War, Midsomer Murders and the adaptation of his own novel, Magpie Murders. In 2022, Anthony was awarded a CBE for services to literature.

Sam Leith is the literary editor of The Spectator, and the author of several books including You Talkin' To Me: Rhetoric from Aristotle to Trump and Beyond and Write To The Point: How To Be Clear, Correct and Persuasive on the Page.  He's currently working on The Haunted Wood, a history of children's literature to be published by Oneworld next autumn.

Lucy Morris is a literary agent at Curtis Brown, where she represents novelists and non-fiction writers. In 2019, she set up the Curtis Brown First Novel Prize as part of the agency's 120th birthday celebrations, and is proud to work with the winner, Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ, and runner-up, Lucy Barker. Lucy is also part of the team behind Discoveries, a development programme for unpublished women writers launched in partnership with the Women’s Prize Trust, Audible and Curtis Brown Creative. Now going into its fourth year, the programme culminates in the Discoveries Prize for a novel-in-progress, where Lucy sits on the judging panel.

A local author of four children’s novels, Sabine Muir has collaborated with illustrator Agnieszka Brozek to produce four picture books. Their first book, I’m Not That Scary, was published at the end of 2019, just before the start of Covid. Josephine Drama Queen came out during the pandemic and their third book, The VIBs - The Very Important Bees, is aimed at helping children understand how important bees are to the environment. Their latest publication We Don’t Want Your Rubbish, is about sea creatures dealing with plastic pollution of the ocean.

A trained actor from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Brendan’s expansive career has seen him perform extensively at many of the UK’s top theatres. He has performed in several of Shakespeare’s plays at the Globe Theatre including The Tempest, Cymbeline, Measure for Measure, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Duchess of Malfi, Henry V, Henry VI, Parts One, Two & Three, and Antony and Cleopatra. As a director, his work has been seen on stages across the UK and abroad. Directing credits for Shakespeare’s Globe include several of the Bard’s well-loved plays such as The Comedy of Errors, Pericles, Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, The Taming of the Shrew, and As You Like It.

A British food writer and critic, Tom Parker Bowles won the Guild of Food Writers 2010 award for his writings on British food. He is well known for his appearances as a judge and critic in numerous television food series including MasterChef and for his reviews of restaurant meals around the UK and overseas for GQ, Esquire and The Mail on Sunday. Tom is also a successful author of 8 books.

A Scottish poet, writer and musician, Don Paterson‘s writing has won many awards, including the Whitbread Poetry Prize, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the Costa Poetry Award, all three Forward Prizes, and the T. S. Eliot Prize. He was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2009. Having previously taught at the University of St Andrews, he is now Emeritus Professor of Poetry in the School of English. From 1997 to 2022, Paterson was poetry editor at Picador. Paterson's memoir Toy Fights: A Boyhood was published by Faber in January 2023.

CEO of The Queen's Reading Room, Vicki is a content producer, festival programmer and all-round bookworm. With a background in literary festivals, TV and Radio, including directing the BBC’s 500 Words competition, Vicki is passionate about making great stories accessible to everyone.

Executive Director of the registered charity, Women's Prize Trust, their mission is to change the world through books by women and open up pathways into reading and writing for the storytellers and booklovers of tomorrow. Named a Bookseller Rising Star in 2013, Claire worked as an editor, before moving into the charity sector. She was Head of Arts at BookTrust where she oversaw a portfolio of reading and writing initiatives before moving into consultancy for literary & media clients. Claire is a passionate advocate of the transformative power of reading and writing, and the ongoing need to invest in and cheerlead women.

Rebecca Smith is an author and journalist from Cumbria, now living in Central Scotland with her partner and three children. She worked for BBC Radio for over a decade producing and researching live and pre-recorded programmes. Her first book Rural: The Lives of the Working-Class Countryside is out now.

Best known for a love of fresh, simple seafood, Rick made his name in the 90s with his earliest books and television series based on his life as chef and owner of The Seafood Restaurant (established in 1975) in the fishing port of Padstow. He has now written over 25 cookery books, a memoir and made over 30 programmes including 12 cookery series. In 2018 Rick was awarded a CBE for Services to the Economy. His latest book, Rick Stein's Simple Suppers will be released in October 2023.

A literary phenomenon, David’s books have been translated into fifty-five languages and have sold more than fifty-four million copies worldwide. They have achieved huge critical acclaim and have spent a record-breaking 230 weeks at number one in the Children’s charts. Critics have compared David to his favourite author, the legendary Roald Dahl.

Doreen was born and brought up in Braemar with family roots going back generations. Her return to the village coincided with the community taking over the operation of Braemar Castle, which has strong historical connections with the Jacobite cause, as a community enterprise. Her background in storytelling and management for the BBC have proved useful skills in creating and running a Visitor Attraction. It has been a joy for Doreen, unearthing long forgotten stories of life here on the Braes of Mar. Tales of those who lived here and those who, over the centuries, visited this spectacular remote part of Scotland to hunt, fish, walk, climb and enjoy this breathtaking landscape.