Jonathan Drori
Jonathan Drori CBE is a Trustee of both Cambridge and Oxford Botanic Gardens and Honorary Professor at Birmingham University’s Institute of Forest Research. Previously, he was a Trustee of the Eden Project and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and for BBC TV, was responsible for many science documentaries. He is known for his TED talks […]
Mike Leigh
Writer-director Mike Leigh trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Camberwell and Central Art Schools in London, and at the London Film School.
Carol Isaacs
Carol Isaacs is a musician and as The Surreal McCoy, a well-known cartoonist.
Orlando Figes
Orlando Figes is an award-winning author and historian, who has held teaching posts at Birkbeck College, University of London and Trinity College, University of Cambridge. His entire life has been dedicated to the study of Russian history.
Norman Lebrecht
Norman Lebrecht is the author of fifteen works of non-fiction, including Genius and Anxiety, and the international bestsellers The Maestro Myth, Why Mahler? and The Life and Death of Classical Music, which have been translated into seventeen languages. His first novel, The Song of Names, is now an award-winning film. He writes a monthly essay […]
Simon May
Simon May was born in London, the son of a violinist and a brush manufacturer. Visiting professor of philosophy at King’s College London, his books include Love: A New Understanding of an Ancient Emotion; Love: A History; Nietzsche’s Ethics and his War on ‘Morality’; The Power of Cute; How to Be a Refugee; Jump! A New Philosophy […]
Ian Thomson
Ian Thomson was one of the last to interview Primo Levi, and the first to journey in his tracks as a biographer. He is an expert on Italian literature and has translated the Sicilian crime writer and essayist Leonardo Sciascia into English.
Robert Chandler
Robert Chandler is an acclaimed and award-winning translator of Russian literature. He has edited three anthologies for Penguin Classics and translated a number of books by Vasily Grossman and Andrey Platonov. He runs a monthly translation workshop at Pushkin House and has published poems in the TLS and Poetry Review.
Zoe Wannamaker
Zoe Wanamaker CBE is an award winning American-born British actress who has worked extensively in the theatre, television and film
Janet Suzman
Dame Janet Suzman DBE is a critically-acclaimed actor and director
Jay Rayner
Jay Rayner is an award-winning writer, journalist and broadcaster, perhaps best known as the restaurant critic since 1999 for The Observer. Jay appears regularly on TV, including on Masterchef.
Emily Maitliss
Emily Maitliss is a well-known and respected newsreader.