Nicholas William Richmond Shakespeare (born 3 March 1957 in Worcester) is a British novelist and biographer.

Born to a diplomat, Shakespeare grew up in the Far East and in South America. He was educated at the Dragon School preparatory school then Winchester College and Cambridge and worked as a journalist for BBC television and then on The Times as assistant arts and literary editor. From 1988 to 1991 he was literary editor of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph.

His time in South America is represented in two novels, The Vision of Elena Silves (1989, Somerset Maugham Award, Betty Trask Award) and The Dancer Upstairs (1995, American Library Association Award). Other less well known works from this period are The Men Who Would Be King (1984), Londoners (1986) and The High Flyer (1993). In 1999, Shakespeare published his biography of Bruce Chatwin to widespread critical acclaim. This was followed by the novel Snowleg (2004, long-listed for the Booker Prize, Dublin IMPAC Award) a 'place' book, In Tasmania (2004, winner of the Tasmania Book Prize 2006), Secrets of the Sea (2007) and Inheritance (2010).

Sir Nicholas Robert Hytner (born 7 May 1956) is an English film and theatre producer and director. He has been the artistic director of London's National Theatre since 2003.

Hytner was born in Manchester to a Jewish family, the son of barrister, Benet Hytner, QC, and his wife, Joyce. He attended Manchester Grammar School and read English at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. In the early 1980s he worked at Exeter University's Northcott Theatre, and in the theatre department. He later became an Associate Director at Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre, where he worked between 1985 and 1989. Hytner first found himself working regularly at the National Theatre in London between 1989 and 1997.

Hytner's directorial work for theatre includes The Country Wife, Edward II, Don Carlos, Ghetto, Miss Saigon, Orpheus Descending, a 2-part adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, Alan Bennett's The History Boys, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel (1992), Southwark Fair and The Alchemist, Measure for Measure (1987), The Tempest (1988) and King Lear (1990), The Recruiting Officer by George Farquhar (1992), The Cripple of Inishmaan by Martin McDonagh (1997), The Winter's Tale (2001), Mother Clap's Molly House by Mark Ravenhill (2001), Henry V (play) (2003) and England People Very Nice (2009).

Nicholas R. Bailey (born 5 July 1971 in Birmingham)^{[citation needed]} is a British actor, best known for his role as Anthony Trueman in the British soap opera EastEnders. He was also a contestant on ITV's Soapstar Superstar in January 2006. He attended Old Swinford Hospital School, Stourbridge and Cherry Orchard, Birmingham.

Bailey has also performed in the theatre, with roles including Robert Mugabe's security officer Gabriel in Breakfast with Mugabe, and The Duke of Burgundy in Richard Eyre's production of King Lear at the National Theatre, London. In 2012, Bailey joined the cast of BBC Radio 4 soap opera The Archers as Carl.

Anthony Bourne Howard (born 27 August 1946 in Saint Michael, Barbados) is a former West Indian cricketer who played one Test in 1972, taking two wickets for 140 in a drawn match against New Zealand. He played 31 first class matches, representing the West Indies and Barbados, and took 85 wickets with his off spin. He retired at the age of 29 to pursue a career in business, but remained involved in cricket, and became manager of the Barbados team in 1998 before taking over the national team in March 2004.

Geoffrey Norman Blainey AC (born 11 March 1930), is a prominent Australian historian and commentator with a wide international audience. He is said to be the “most prolific, wide-ranging, inventive, and - in the 1980s and 1990s - most controversial of Australia’s living historians.” Between 1967 and 2007 he was chairman or member of a wide range of the Australian Government’s councils, boards and committees. His name sometimes appears in lists of the most influential Australians, past or present.

Blainey was born in Melbourne and raised in a series of Victorian country towns before attending Wesley College and the University of Melbourne. While at university he was editor of Farrago, the newspaper of the University of Melbourne Student Union. He was appointed to a teaching post at the University of Melbourne in 1962, becoming Professor of Economic History in 1968, Professor of History in 1977, and then Dean of Melbourne's Faculty of Arts in 1982. From 1994 to 1998 Blainey was foundation Chancellor at the University of Ballarat.