Philip Sandeman Ziegler (born 24 December 1929) is a British biographer and historian.

Born in Ringwood, Ziegler was educated at St Cyprian's School, Eastbourne, and went with the school when it merged with Summer Fields School, Oxford. He was afterwards at Eton College and New College, Oxford. He earned a degree in Jurisprudence with highest honours before joining the British Foreign Service, in which he served in Laos, Pretoria and Bogotá, as well as with the Delegation to NATO in Paris.

In 1967 he retired from the Foreign Service, and joined Collins. Originally intending to be a novelist, he began a career as biographer with his life of Talleyrand's lover, the Duchess of Dino. He was editor in chief at Collins from 1979-80. He has written in various journals and newspapers including The Spectator, The Listener, The Times, The Daily Telegraph and History Today.

Anne Fine, OBE FRSL (b. 7 December 1947, Leicester, England) is a British author best known for her children's books, of which she has written more than 50. She also writes for adults. She was appointed the second Children's Laureate, in succession to Quentin Blake, holding the position from 2001 to 2003.

She was educated at Northampton High School and graduated in politics from University of Warwick. She currently lives in Barnard Castle, County Durham, England. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was awarded an OBE in 2003. She was married to the philosopher Kit Fine.

Her books for older children include the award winning The Tulip Touch and Goggle-Eyes, which was adapted for television by writer Deborah Hall for the BBC. Twentieth Century Fox filmed her satirical novel Madame Doubtfire as Mrs. Doubtfire, starring Robin Williams. Her books for younger children include Bill's New Frock and How to Write Really Badly. Her work has been translated into 27 languages.

Nobody has ever treated Ian Laidlow in a natural way. Disfigured by hideous facial scars he had never been treated with anything other than distant courtesy. But then Alicia Davie, a careless, ignorant young student breaks this pattern by laughing in his face. Alicia goes on to infiltrate the hidden man, going through the face he presents to the world, through his scar patch, to discover the hidden man, never realising that she is playing with fire...

Owen Sheers (born 20 September 1974) is a Welsh poet, author, playwright, actor and TV presenter. He is the first writer in residence to be appointed by any national rugby union.

Owen Sheers was born in Suva, Fiji in 1974 and brought up in Abergavenny, South Wales. He was educated at King Henry VIII comprehensive school, Abergavenny, New College, Oxford, and at the University of East Anglia where he did an MA in Creative Writing. He worked on The Big Breakfast as a researcher.

The winner of an Eric Gregory Award and the 1999 Vogue Young Writer’s Award, his first collection of poetry, The Blue Book (Seren, 2000), -a collection of poems about family, first love and farming life - was short-listed for the Wales Book of the Year and the Forward Poetry Prize Best 1st Collection, 2001. His debut prose work The Dust Diaries (Faber 2004), a non-fiction narrative set in Zimbabwe, was short-listed for the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize and won the Wales Book of the Year 2005.

In 2004 Owen was Writer in Residence at The Wordsworth Trust and was selected as one of the Poetry Book Society’s 20 Next Generation Poets. Owen’s 2nd collection of poetry, Skirrid Hill (Seren, 2005) won a 2006 Somerset Maugham Award. Unicorns, almost his one man play based on the life and poetry of the WWII poet Keith Douglas was developed by Old Vic, New Voices, and performed by Joseph Fiennes.

Dylan Jones (born 1960) is a journalist who is editor of British GQ. Having won the BSME Editor of the Year Award four times during his tenure at GQ, Jones was also recognised for the Brand Building Initiative of the Year 2007 for the annual GQ Men of the Year Awards.

Jones attended Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London where he studied graphic design and photography. He began his career in journalism at i-D magazine, becoming Editor in 1984 before moving onto Arena in 1987 to serve as Editor. At that same time, he was also a contributing editor at The Face.

Following that, he worked as associate editor of The Observer magazine and editor-at-large of The Sunday Times before taking over at GQ in 1999. Jones is credited with bringing in a gold-star roster of writers, as well as taking the magazine in a more political (right-wing) direction, recently featuring Conservative party leader David Cameron on the front cover.

Jones currently has a weekly column in the magazine supplement of the Mail on Sunday. Topics of his column have included the decreasing number of men wearing ties and the poor dress sense of the majority of British people. Jones also writes regularly for The Independent Saturday magazine.