Speaker

Jasbinder Bilan

Jasbinder is the Costa Award winning author of Asha and the Spirit Bird, Tamarind and the Star of Ishta and Aarti and the Blue Gods. In her writing she loves creating magical worlds inspired by her love of nature and wild places. Jasbinder was born on a farm close to the foothills of the Himalaya and now lives in a wooded valley near Bath with her husband, two teenage boys and dog Enzo. Her latest book, Xanthe and the Ruby Crown, is inspired by her hometown of Nottingham and brings magic to an everyday setting.

Top Titles

     Asha and the Spirit Bird (2019)

    Tamarind and the Star of Ishta (2020)

   Xanthe and the Ruby Crown (2023)

Speaker

Nizrana Farook

Nizrana Farook was born and raised in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and the beautiful landscapes of her home country find their way into the stories she writes. Her first book, The Girl Who Stole an Elephant, was the UK’s biggest selling children’s debut of the year. Featuring a feisty girl-thief named Chaya and a loveable elephant, it was longlisted for the Blue Peter Award and the Jhalak Prize. Three more books followed, all set in a fictional Sri Lanka. Nizrana has a master’s degree in writing for young people and lives with her family in Hertfordshire, UK.

Top Titles

• The Girl Who Stole an Elephant (2020)

• The Boy Who Met a Whale (2021)

• The Boy Who Saved a Bear (2023)

Speaker

Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Kiran Millwood Hargrave (FRSL) is an internationally bestselling, award winning novelist for children and adults. Her children’s books include The Girl of Ink & Stars, Julia and the Shark, and most recently the first in her major new The Geomancer Trilogy, In the Shadow of the Wolf Queen. Her fiction for adults, The Mercies and The Dance Tree, have won international accolades such as the Prix Rive Gauche, a Betty Trask Award and an NYT Notable Book. Her work has been translated into over thirty languages, and optioned for stage and screen. She lives in Oxford with her husband, artist Tom de Freston, their daughter, and two cats.

Top Titles

• The Girl of Ink & Stars (2016)

• The Mercies (2022)

• In the Shadow of the Wolf Queen (2023)

Speaker

Anthony Horowitz

Anthony is a born polymath; juggling writing books, TV series, films, plays and journalism. Anthony has written over 50 books including the bestselling teen spy series Alex Rider, which is estimated to have sold 21 million copies worldwide and has been adapted into a hugely successful television series.

He is also an acclaimed writer for adults. He was commissioned to write two new Sherlock Holmes novels, and three continuation novels for James Bond. Anthony’s award-winning novel Magpie Murders was serialised on BritBox and televised on the BBC in 2023. The sequel, Moonflower Murders, began filming in 2023. His new series, featuring Detective Hawthorne and a sidekick called Anthony Horowitz, includes five books so far.

Anthony is responsible for creating some of the UK’s most beloved television series including Midsomer Murders and Foyle’s War, the Winner of the Lew Grade Audience award for BAFTA. Anthony was awarded a CBE in 2022 for his services to literature.

Top Titles

• With a Mind to Kill (2022 – final James Bond novel) 
• Nightshade: Revenge (2023 – the latest in the Alex Rider series) 
• Close to Death (2023 – the latest in the Hawthorne and Horowitz series)