George Grossmith

George Grossmith (1847 – 1912) was a comedian, writer and composer. As an actor, he created many of the most memorable characters in the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. In 1888–89, he wrote the humorous columns that became the novel The Diary of a Nobody in collaboration with his brother Weedon.

Andrew Davies

Born in Cardiff, Andrew Davies is a multi-award-winning screenwriter, novelist and former academic. He is best known for his adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, Middlemarch, War and Peace, Bleak House, House of Cards and Bridget Jones’s Diary. His original work includes A Very Peculiar Practice, Game On and Filthy Rich. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a BAFTA and Emmy winner. He lives in Kenilworth.

Camille Selden

John Broadwin

John Broadwin is a librarian and award-winning translator based in Menlo Park, California.

Weedon Grossmith

Weedon Grossmith (1854–1919) was an artist and stage performer, before turning his hand to fiction with The Diary of a Nobody, which he also illustrated to much acclaim.

Thomas Mann

The German novelist Thomas Mann (1875–1955), winner of the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature and author of enduringly popular novels such as Buddenbrooks, The Magic Mountain and Death in Venice, is regarded as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century.

Conrad Ferdinand Meyer

Conrad Ferdinand Meyer (1825–98) was a Swiss poet and historical novelist. He is best remembered today for narrative ballads such as ‘Feet in the Fire’.

Lyman Andrews

Lyman Andrews (1938–2009) was an American poet, critic and lecturer who spent most of his life in Britain, where he taught at the University of Leicester and worked as poetry editor of the Sunday Times.

Eugene O’Neill

Born in New York City, Eugene O’Neill (1888–1953) was a prolific author of tragedies and the recipient of the 1936 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is best remembered today for Mourning Becomes Electra and Long Day’s Journey into Night.