Authors

Abdulla, Raficq

Raficq Abdulla was awarded an MBE in 1999 for his ecumenical work among Muslims, Jews and Christians. He has written and presented numerous radio programmes about Islam for the BBC, including a series of talks on the Prophet Muhammad and the Four Caliphs, and programmes on Jalaluddin Rumi. He has written award-winning screenplays for Channel 4, poetry and articles for a range of journals, and he is a frequent book reviewer. .....

Abrahams, Philippa

Trained at the Slade School of Fine Art and the Courtauld Institute of Art, Philippa Abrahams is an artist, conservator, museum education consultant and teacher, and an expert on historic art materials and painting and drawing techniques. She has contributed to several television and radio programmes, advising on techniques and materials and demonstrating the working methods of artists including Michelangelo, Titian, Seurat and Whistler. .....

Abramovich, Alex

ALEX ABRAMOVICH has been an editor of Feed, Flavorpill, and Very Short List and a writer for The New York Times, The London Review of Books, and other publications. He lives in Oakland, California, and Astoria, Queens.

Aciman, Andre

André Aciman teaches Comparative Literature at the City University Graduate Center. He is the author of False Papers and the memoir Out of Egypt.

Ackerley, J. R.

J. R. Ackerley (1896-1967) was for many years the literary editor of the BBC magazine The Listener. His works include three memoirs, Hindoo Holiday, My Dog Tulip, and My Father and Myself, and a novel, We Think the World of You (all available as New York Review Books).

Ackroyd, Peter

London has been the main character in the work of Peter Ackroyd ever since his first novel, The Great Fire of London. His Hawksmoor won the Whitbread and the Guardian Fiction Prize, Chatterton was shortlisted for the Booker, London: the Biography won the South Bank Show Annual Award for Literature. Reviewers commonly categorize him as the Dickens of our day.

Aczel, Richard

Richard Aczel is the author of National Character and European Identity in Hungarian Literature, 1772-1848.

Adams, Henry

Henry Adams (1838–1918) was an American historian, journalist, and novelist. In 1907 he published his Pulitzer Prize–winning autobiography, The Education of Henry Adams, considered by many to be the most important nonfiction work of the twentieth century. He died in 1918 at his home in Washington, D.C.

Adams, Sarah

Sarah Adams studied Art and Design at Hull College of Art. After graduating she completed a post-graduate in illustration at Central St Martins School of Art in London. Sarah has worked for numerous and varied publishers including Walker Books, Orchard books and The Times but GARY AND RAY was the first picture book she both wrote and illustrated. She has exhibited her work widely in London both in mixed and solo shows. .....

Adams, Sean

Sean Adams (adamsmorioka.com) is the national president and past national board member of AIGA. He is a Fellow of the Aspen Design Conference, and AIGA Fellow. He teaches at Art Center College of Design. Sean is a frequent lecturer and competition judge internationally, and is the co-author of Logo Design Workbook, Color Design Workbook, and the upcoming Masters of Design.

Adl, Shirin

SHIRIN ADL was born in the UK but was brought up in Iran. She studied Illustration at Loughborough University, going ton to win the Hallmark M&S Talented Desginer Award. She was Booktrust's official illustrator forChildren's Book Week in 2010. Her books for Frances Lincoln include Pea Boy: Stories from Iran with Elizabeth Laird, Ramadan Moon with Na'ima B Robert, and Let's Celebrate: Festival Poems from Around the World with Debjani Chatterjee. .....

Adler, Renata

Renata Adler is an American journalist, critic, and novelist. Born in 1938 in Milan and raised in Connecticut, she was educated at Bryn Mawr, Harvard, the Sorbonne, and Yale Law School. Adler began her writing career at The New Yorker in 1962 and, except for a year spent as the chief film critic for The New York Times (1968–69), remained on staff there for the next four decades. Her essay collections include A Year in the Dark and Toward a Radical Middle, both from 1969; Reckless Disregard: Westmoreland v. .....

Adriaenssens, Werner

Werner Adriaenssens received his Doctor's degree in Archeology and Art History from Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He is Curator of Twentieth Century Decorative Arts of the Royal Museums of Art and History of Belgium, Brussels, and Professor of Art History in Decorative Arts of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

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Aggs, Patrice

Patrice Aggs was born and brought up in the United States, but now lives in West Sussex, England. She has illustrated over thirty-five picture books for children. In the early 1980s she was part of the team which produced the animated film The Snowman.

Patrice is currently writing picture books, illustrating and printmaking. She lives on a farm in West Sussex with her husband and two teenagers. .....

Aiken, Joan

Joan Aiken, the daughter of the American poet and writer Conrad Aiken and Jessie Macdonald Aiken (also an author), was an immensely popular and prolific author who wrote almost a hundred novels for adults and children. The creator of the stories about Arabel and her pet raven Mortimer, which have been televised on the BBC, she wrote wonderful, quirky novels, full of humour and the unexpected, about alternative realities. .....

Aitchison, Craig

Craig Aitchison is a young, up and coming landscape photographer. Based in Glasgow, he is naturally drawn towards the beauty and splendour of Scotland’s mountains, lochs and glens. With a combined passion and knowledge, he strives to capture the beauty of Scotland’s wild land and light.

Alatalo, Jaakko

Jaakko Alatalo was born in the Midwestern part of Finland. He studied photography at Lahti Institute of design and he has been working as a free lance photographer and author for over thirty years. He has lived in Lapland since the 1978. Numerous newspapers, magazines and book publishers have used his photographs and texts. He has created some photo-poem books together with poet Vilho Vähäsarja. .....

Albaret, Celeste

Céleste Albaret (1892-1984) was born into a peasant family in the mountainous region of Lozère, France. In 1913, she married Odilon Albaret, a Parisian chauffeur, whose clients included Marcel Proust. Odilon suggested that his new wife, who was lonely in the big city and at a loss for something to do, run errands for Proust, and before long Céleste found herself employed as the writer's full-time (indeed round-the-clock) housekeeper, secretary, and nurse, filling those roles until his death in 1922. .....

Alcouffe, Daniel

Daniel Alcouffe received his Diploma in Archiving and Paleography from the École nationale des Chartes, Paris. He is Honorary Chief Curator of Decorative Arts of the Musée du Louvre, Paris, and Officer of the Legion of Honour of the French Republic. Monsieur Alcouffe has published many articles and six books.

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Alighieri, Dante

Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) was born into a noble family in Florence. He fought as a cavalryman, served in a variety of civic and diplomatic positions, and in 1300 attained a preeminent place in the administration of his native city. Florence was at the time caught in a bitter struggle between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines—as well as between contending factions within those political parties —and in 1301, having been sent on an embassy to the Pope in Rome, Dante learned that his enemies had come to power. .....

Allen, Darina

Allen, Harry

Harry Allen was born in the UK, but spent many of his teenage years in Nigeria. He was educated at International schools in Lagos and London, and at Leeds University. After graduating with a degree in Theatre Arts, Harry has worked as an actor, director teacher and writer and has had several plays for young people produced, enjoying collaborations with companies and individuals in Europe and Australia. .....

Allen Sibley, David

David Allen Sibley is a world-renowned bird artist, ornithologist and author. He is the author and illustrator of The Sibley Guide to Birds, considered by many to be the most comprehensive guide for the identification of birds in North America.

Allison, James

Amnesty International,

Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights. AI has a varied network of members and supporters around the world. At the latest count, there were more than 2.2 million members, supporters and subscribers in over 150 countries and territories in every region of the world. Although they come from many different backgrounds and have widely different political and religious beliefs, they are united by a determination to work for a world where everyone enjoys human rights.

Ananth, Anuradha

Anuradha Ananth has always loved books. She works as a presenter and senior producer with the SS Music television channel in Chennai.

Anderson, Brendan

Brendan Anderson was born in Belfast in December 1945. He has worked in print for thirty-five years – first as a compositor, then as a proofreader, a typesetter and page make-up artist. Selected by an enlightened editor at the Irish News to be trained as a journalist in 1989, he became senior reporter and security writer for that paper within two years. He has covered all the big stories of the Irish troubles, and interviewed and questioned all of the major players. .....

Anderson, Rachel

Rachel Anderson was born in 1943. She has worked in radio and journalism. Rachel has written four books for adults and 55 for young readers. She lives in Norfolk with her husband and has several grandchildren and two goldfish.

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Angell, Roger

Apatoff, Lise

Lise Apatoff, originally from Chicago, has been living on a farm in the Tuscan countryside north of Florence since 1978. She shares her intimate understanding of Italy as a teacher, travel coordinator and museum lecturer by making the “the living classroom of the Renaissance” come alive for visitors of all of ages by imparting a passion for art, history, and the countless delightful nuances of the Italian culture.

Archer-Wills, Anthony

Anthony Archer-Wills has designed and built over 2,000 water features – from small ponds in urban gardens to vast lakes on country estates. He runs a design consultancy and water plant nursery in West Sussex. His innovative use of new materials and boldly imaginative construction techniques is widely acclaimed by gardening experts, and he is much in demand, in both Europe and the United States, as a lecturer on every aspect of water feature construction and planting. .....

Ardizzone, Edward

Edward Ardizzone was the eldest of five children. In 1905 his family moved to Ipswich, where he learnt to know and love the little coastal steamers that he was to draw so often in the Little Tim books. Illustrator of more than 170 much-loved children's books, Edward Ardizzone was awarded the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1956 and the CBE in 1971. He died in 1979.

Armstrong, Judy

Judy Armstrong is a New Zealander, with bases in North Yorkshire and the French Alps. While she loves her home in a small village in the North York Moors national park, she still finds time to travel by foot, kayak, horse, bike and skis throughout Europe, Africa, South and Central America, and Asia. Judy works regularly for magazines and newspapers specialising in adventure travel and outdoor pursuits. .....

Aronson, Ronald

RONALD ARONSON is the author of The Dialectics of Disaster, After Marxism, Camus and Sartre and Living Without God. He teaches at Wayne State University.

Arrigan, Mary

Mary Arrigan studied at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, University College, Dublin and Florence University. She taught art for 18 years before starting to write for children. She was awarded the International Youth Library (Munich) White Ravens title in 1997, the Bisto Merit Award in 2000 and has also won The Sunday Times Crime Writers Association Short Story Award and The Hennessy Short Story Award. .....

Aschwanden, Christie

Christie Aschwanden is a journalist, essayist and poultry farmer in Cedaredge, Colorado. Her writing has appeared in more than 60 publications including the New York Times, Reader’s Digest and New Scientist. She raises an assortment of free-range chickens, heritage turkeys, guinea fowl, ducks and geese at the Crag Crest Poultry Ranch and Farm.

Ashbery, John

John Ashbery is the author of twenty books of poetry, including Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (1975), which received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the National Book Award; and Some Trees (1956), which was selected by W. H. Auden for the Yale Younger Poets Series. He has also published art criticism, plays, and a novel. Ashbery is currently the Charles P. .....

Ashe FitzGerald, Mairéad

Mairéad Ashe FitzGerald was born in the parish of Columcille in Longford and grew up in County Clare. A former teacher of Irish and History, she studied archaeology and Irish and has a lifelong, profound interest in the Early Irish period and traditions.

Ashley, Bernard

Bernard Ashley is a former head teacher who is now writing full-time. He lives in South London where he was born. Bernard's impressive list of titles reflects 35 years of writing realistic fiction – from picture books right up to teenage novels. Several of Bernard's books have been successfully televised and he has frequently appeared on prize lists – his Little Soldier was short-listed for the Guardian Prize in 2000. .....

Ashley, Peter

Peter Ashley is the author and photographer of over twenty books, including London Peculiars, Pastoral Peculiars, Unmitigated England and More from Unmitigated England. He edited Railway Rhymes for the Everyman's Library Pocket Poets Series and collaborated with Philip Wilkinson on books accompanying the BBC Restoration programmes, as well as The English Buildings Book, the ultimate guide to building types. .....

Aslet, Clive

Clive Aslet is an award-winning writer and journalist, acknowledged as a leading authority on Britain and its way of life. In 1977 he joined the magazine Country Life, where he was Editor for 13 years, and is now Editor at Large. He writes extensively for papers such as the Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail and the Sunday Times, and often broadcasts on television and radio. A well-known campaigner on the countryside and other issues, he has studied the debate about climate change since attending the Kyoto Protocol negotiations in 1997.

Asquith, Ros

ROS ASQUITH has been a Guardian cartoonist for 20 years, and has written and illustrated over 60 books for young people, including the bestseller The Great Big Book of Families, with Mary Hoffman, the Teenage Worrier series, Letters from an Alien Schoolboy-which was shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize- and her debut picture story book It’s Not Fairy.  She worked as a photographer, designer and teacher before becoming a theatre critic for Time Out and the Observer, and diary writer for the TV Times. .....

Attlee, Helena

Helena Attlee is an author and journalist who has made the garden and its history her special subject. Her books include The Gardens of Portugal Italian Gardens: A Cultural History and Gardens of Wales (all publishd by Frances Lincoln). She lectures widely, writes for a wide range of journals and magazines, and leads specialist garden tours. She lives in Presteigne, Powys, with her husband, the photographer Alex Ramsay.

Aubry, Françoise

Françoise Aubry received her Master's degree in Art History from the Université libre de Bruxelles. She is Curator of the Musée Horta, Brussels.

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Auden, W. H.

W. H. Auden (1907–1973) was born in North Yorkshire, England, the son of a doctor. He studied at Oxford and published his first book, Poems, in 1930, immediately establishing himself as one of the outstanding voices of his generation. Auden emigrated to New York in 1939, where he became a US citizen and converted to Anglicanism. He wrote essays, critical studies, plays, and opera librettos for such composers as Benjamin Britten, Igor Stravinsky, and Hans Werner Henze, as well as the poems for which he is most famous.

Audubon, John James

John James Audubon was a naturalist and painter and is considered one of the greatest bird artists of all time. Born in Haiti in 1785, he spent much of his life travelling North America observing, catching and drawing birds and animals in remarkable detail. Using a variety of materials to create a highly dramatic style, he painted almost 500 species of the 700 or so regularly occurring North American bird species. .....

Auel, Jean M.

Jean M. Auel is the international best-selling author of the Earth's Children series, which includes The Clan of the Cave Bear and The Mammoth Hunters.

Auerbach, Erich

Erich Auerbach (1892–1957) was born in Berlin, educated at the Universities of Heidelberg and Greifswald, and served in the German army during World War I. A professor at the University of Marburg, Auerbach fled Hitler's Germany in 1933 for Istanbul, where his encyclopedic knowledge of literature allowed him to compose his great study of realism, Mimesis, largely from memory. In 1947 he moved to the United States, where he taught at Pennsylvania State and Yale Universities.

Austen, Jane

Jane Austen (1775 - 1817) was a major English novelist, whose brilliantly witty, elegantly structured satirical fiction marks the transition in English literature from 18th century neo-classicism to 19th century romanticism. Born in the village of Steventon, near Basingstoke, in Hampshire. The seventh of eight children, she was the daughter of a clergyman and part of a close-knit family. In 1801 the family moved to Bath until the death of her father. .....

Auster, Paul

Paul Auster is the author of ten novels, most recently The Book of Illusions. He lives with his wife and daughter in Brooklyn, NY.

Averill, Esther

Esther Averill (1902-1992) began her career as a storyteller drawing cartoons for her local newspaper. After graduating from Vassar College in 1923, she moved first to New York City and then to Paris, where she founded her own publishing company. The Domino Press introduced American readers to artists from all over the world, including Feodor Rojankovsky, who later won a Caldecott Award. In 1941, Esther Averill returned to the United States and found a job in the New York Public Library while continuing her work as a publisher. .....

Avery, Tom

Tom Avery grew up in Lewisham and trained as a primary teacher at the University of Greenwich. He taught in South London for two years, and then in inner-city Birmingham. He is now co-ordinator of English, Communication and Language at a primary school in Kentish Town, London. He loves working with young people, helping them to develop their interests and encouraging them to think about the world around them. .....